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RUTHIE’S STORY 


BY 

CHARLES STEDMAN 



NEWHALL. 




PHILADELPHIA : 

PRESBYTERIAN BOARD OF PUBLICATION 
AND SABBATH-SCHOOL WORK, 

1334 CHESTNUT STREET. 


COPYRIGHT, 1888, BY 

THE TRUSTEES OF THE 

PRESBYTERIAN BOARD OF PUBLICATION 
AND SABBATH-SCHOOL WORK. 


ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. 

12.- 


Westcott & Thomson, 
Stereotypers and Electrotypers , Philada. 


Perhaps there is need of brightening the 
thought-pictures that the children often 
have of Jesus Christ, and need, also, of 
making Him who blessed the little ones 
seem more real to them and dearer. I 
have thought so ; therefore I have written 
this child’s story. It is written for the 
very youngest of the blessed ones. 

3 






































CONTENTS. 

PAGE 

To the Children 9 

CHAPTER I. 

Ruthie and the Baby Jesus n 

CHAPTER II. 

Ruthie and the Boy Jesus 35 

CHAPTER III. 

Ruthie and the Dear Christ Jesus 61 

CHAPTER IV. 

Ruthie and the Sleeping Jesus 94 

CHAPTER V. 

Ruthie and the Risen Jesus 13 1 

CHAPTER VI. 

Ruthie and Jesus Now 163 


5 














































































ILLUSTRATIONS 


PAGE 

The Baby Jesus 13 

The Wondering Shepherds 15 

The Good Tidings 23 

Following the Star 26 

The First Christmas Gifts 27 

A Lesson in Flying 35 

The Flight into Egypt 40 

Egyptian Donkeys 42 

Nazareth ' 45 

The Song of the Birds 47 

“ The Bird Sings His Praise ” 48 

Jesus in the Temple 57 

Tail-Piece 60 

Carpenter’s Shop at Nazareth 67 

Jesus and the Children 69 

Sea of Galilee .73 

Jesus Raising the Little Damsel 85 

Jerusalem from the Mount of Olives 91 

Jesus Riding on a Colt 101 

Jesus Enters Jerusalem 103 


7 


8 


ILL USTRA TIONS. 


PAGE 

Distant View of Bethany 106 

The Dead Sea 108 

Bethany .. 1 1 1 

Mary Anointing Jesus 113 

The Upper Room 115 

Gethsemane 1 1 7 

Jesus Seized 119 

Jesus Before Pilate 123 

The Crucifixion 125 

Tail-Piece 130 

The Snow-Song 133 

Snowballing 135 

A Merry Sleighride 137 

The Opened Tomb 142 

The Stone Rolled Away 146 

Jesus’ Appearance to the Women 147 

Peter’s Denial 149 

On the Way to Emmaus 153 

Ruthie and her Mother 165 

The Ascension 172 

Tail- Piece 187 


TO THE CHILDREN 


Violets, roses, lilies white, 
Singing-birds and stars at night, — 
All are whispering, children mine, 
Whispering low, 

Ah ! the sweetest, sweetest story 
Earth can ever know. 

But the stars and birds and flowers 
Speak in other words than ours 
When they tell, O darlings mine — 
Twinkling so, 

Twittering low — 

Ah! the very sweetest story 
Heaven can show. 

Could I look into your faces, 

Boys and girls, 

Deep into the eyes beneath your 
Tangled curls, 

I would quickly tell to you 
All the story sweet and true. 


9 


IO 


RUTH IE ' S STORY. 


I will write for you the words, 
Children all ; 

So the story sung by birds 
When the twilight shadows fall, 
Twinkled by the stars above, 
Dreamed of by the flowers in love, 
Sweetest story told below, 

You will know. 


Keeseville, N. Y. 


C. S. 


Ruthie’s Story. 


CHAPTER I. 

RUTH IE AND THE BABY JESUS. 

OW, Susan Jane, and Ann, and Tom, 



1 ^1 and all of you ” (these were Ruthie’s 
dolls), “see that you mind me. Now, sit just 
as still as mice while I’m talking. — Ann, 
don’t you whisper. — And, Tom, if I see you 
up to any mischief — teasing Susan Jane or 
whistling or trying to play marbles, or any- 
thing — well, I shall have to — to put you 
’way up in a tree. What am I going to 
talk about? About something very nice. 
Somebody told it to me, and now I’m go- 
ing to tell it to you — if you behave your- 
selves. Now listen.” 


11 


12 


RUTH IE ' S STORY. 


Just here there came a knock at the door 
— knock ! knock ! knock ! 

“ Come in !” called Ruthie. 

In walked Nellie and Charlie, two of 
Ruthie’s playmates. 

“ Oh, I am glad you’ve come ! I was just 
going to talk to my children about some- 
thing ever so nice. Don’t you want to 
hear it? You can ask questions too, if 
you want to j but, children, mind : don’t 
you let me hear a word from you. Chil- 
dren should be seen, and not heard. 

“Now I am going to begin. What do 
you suppose it is about? 

“ It is all about — oh, such a dear, dear 
little baby-boy like my baby-brother Lu- 
ther. 

“Did I ever see him? No; but some- 
body did, and they told somebody else, 
and mother told me. 

“Well, it was a long way from here that 
that baby-boy was born — away across the 
ocean. My cousin Will has been there; 1 


RUTHIE AND THE BABY JESUS. 1 3 

mean to go some time too. My cousin Will 
writes poetry ; he has given me some about 
this very baby. 

“Will I tell it to you ? Yes ; by and by 
— before I’m through. 

“Well, when the baby was born, where 



THE BABY JESUS. 


do you suppose they put the little thing to 
go to sleep? In the funniest place. You 
must know the father and mother were 
away traveling. There were so many 


H 


RUTH IE'S STORY. 


other people where they stopped — such 
a crowd — that they had to get along just 
the best way they could. 

“The place they found was comfortable 
enough, but it was such a queer kind of 
place ! 

“ Where do you suppose it was ? It was 
a sort of stable-place where they sometimes 
fed the goats and the donkeys and camels, 
that are used in that country instead of 
cows and horses. 

“ And what do you think ? One of the 
mangers where they fed the animals — made 
now all nice and clean and soft — was what 
they used for the baby’s first cradle. 

“ Oh how sweet and cunning it must 
have been ! 

“Just think, Nellie! Wouldn’t we have 
loved that baby ? I love babies, any way, 
don’t you? I love my baby-brother very 
much, and I do love my Susan Jane, and 
my other children. Don’t you love your 
children, Nellie?” 


THE WONDERING SHEPHERDS 






1 6 


RUTH IE ' S STORY. 


“ But, Ruthie,” said Charlie, “ I can’t see 
how a manger would make a nice cradle 
for a baby.” 

“ Oh, I can ! Mother showed me the 
prettiest picture of it — a copy of a very 
old, old painting — she said. There was the 
stable, and there were some shepherd-men 
and some cattle, and the father and the 
mother — the mother’s name was Mary — 
and right there among them all, in a little 
nest of straw, was the baby — oh, so pretty! 
I wanted to hug it — and they were all 
crowding around to see it. Of course the 
dear mother stood nearest. I suppose she 
loved it the best. 

“ But there was one thing I couldn’t un- 
derstand : in the whole place there was no 
lamp, no lantern — no little candle even — 
but, for all that, it wasn’t one bit dark 
there. 

“What do you suppose made it so 
bright? I don’t believe you could guess. 
It was a beautiful light that seemed to 


RUTHIE AND THE BABY JESUS. 


7 


come shining right up from around the 
sweet baby’s face. It was so bright no- 
body could look straight at it — no one but 
the mother. 

“ I don’t know what it meant. I don’t 
suppose it was really so when the baby 
was born, but the man who painted the 
picture made it that way. I asked mother 
what it meant, and she told me to think 
about it ; and I have been thinking and 
thinking. 

“I sha’n’t ask Susan Jane — she hasn’t 
much sense — but, Nellie, what do you 
think it could mean ?” 

“ Oh, it might mean — it might mean, per- 
haps — What ? Perhaps that he was a 
bright little star shining in a dark, dark 
sky. Perhaps — perhaps that he was a 

beautiful, bright little flower, as bright as 
a gold dandelion shining on the dark 
ground. Or perhaps — perhaps that he 
was going to be such a dear baby that he 
would make a great many sad people in 
2 


i8 


RUTHIE'S STORY. 


the world very glad — would be a kind of 
bright little smile in their lives always.” 

“Well, I do believe it must have been 
something like that, Nellie. — Don’t you 
think so, Charlie ?” 

“Yes, I guess so. Any way, I know 
some folks — and not far off — whose faces 
are something that way — kind of sunny, 
you know.” 

“Well, Charlie, if our faces are sunny — 
for I know you mean us — it’s just because 
we are talking about that dear little baby- 
boy; so the more we talk about him, 
the better. — There, there, Ann darling ! 
Did you tumble ? Let mother kiss you. 
Don’t cry, precious. — Tom, take hold of 
sister dear’s hand. Mamma wants to 
talk some more.” 

“What was the baby’s name, Ruthie?” 
asked Charlie. 

“ Now I’ll tell you about that. They had 
such a happy time naming the baby — 
everybody does, you know — and they 


* RUTH IE AND THE BABY JESUS. 


l 9 


found such a pretty name. It was ‘Jesus/ 
I suppose they had ever so many other 
names — pet-names. Everybody has them 
with their babies. Mother gives all sorts 
of funny names to our baby — so many that 
one day when Cousin Will had heard her, 
and they had been laughing about it, he 
made these verses. I learned them : 

“‘MY POSSESSIONS. 

“ * Oh, mother is rich and can envy none, 

Though she owns no land nor a house of stone ; 

“ ‘ For from peep of day to daylight’s close 

With “ Pansy ” and “ Pink ” and “ Lily ” and “ Rose ” 

“ ‘ Her home is bright as a bower of bliss ; 

No flower is wanting that she would miss. 

“ ‘ Her table is spread with more than bread — 

With “ Peach ” and “ Plum ” and “ Cherry Red.” 

“ * Her pets are a wonder indeed to see, 

But the very dearest they seem to be — 

‘“A “ Monkey,” a “ Toad,” a “ Mousie Gray,” 

A “ Birdie,” too, that coo-oo’s all day. 


20 


RUTII IE ' S STORY. 


That is her wealth ; it brings her joy : 

In her cozy home she asks no more. 

Oh, indeed she is rich, though all this store 
Is the mother’s names for her baby-boy.’ ” 


“Now, Tom dear, do be quiet! If you 
are not interested, the others may be. 
Now, please do try and sit still; there’s 
a good boy. 

“ So I expect when Mary was taking 
care of her little Jesus away over there 
across the sea in Bethlehem — for that is 
where they lived for a little while — that 
she had ever so many pet-names, and 
pretty ones too, for her baby-boy.” 

“I wonder what they were?” 

“I don’t know. But I do think that of 
all babies’ names I know the very pretti- 
est is ‘Jesus.’ Maybe I think so because 
I think it was such a sweet, dear baby that 
had the name. 

“ Now I am going to tell you about 
something very beautiful and wonderful 
that happened on this baby’s birthnight. 


RUTHIE AND THE BABY JESUS. 


21 


It sounds like a fairy-story, but it isn’t. 
It’s true. 

“ You must know that in that country 
they kept ever so many nice white sheep ; 
there were flocks of them all over the hills. 
Oh, they were as white and pretty as the 
flocks of little white clouds that go drifting 
over the sky, only the sky is blue and the 
hills were green. In pleasant weather the 
sheep and lambs all went to bed out of 
doors. Wasn’t it a pretty bedroom, the 
grass for a green carpet, and the sky for 
the walls and ceiling, and the twinkle- 
stars for lamps ? When the nights were 
cool, they had nice woolen blankets all 
ready made — their own wooly skins, you 
know. Then always there were shepherds 
to watch over the sheep, to show them 
where the nicest places were and to keep 
away the hungry wolves and lions. The 
shepherds stayed with them in the fields 
all the time, day and night, and they loved 
their lambs — oh, ever, ever so much ! I 


22 


RUTH IE'S STORY. 


expect that is why the Bible says God 
is our Shepherd. — Don’t you think so, 
Nellie?” 

‘"Yes, just as though we were his dear 
little lambs.” 

“Well, one beautiful night — it was Jesus’ 
birthnight — when the shepherds were out 
on the hills near Bethlehem keeping watch 
over their flocks, what do you think hap- 
pened? All at once there shone round 
them a very bright light — something, I 
suppose, like that I told you about which 
shone from the baby’s face, only brighter — 
and right in the midst of the light there 
was an angel ; and the angel spoke to 
them. And, don’t you think, it was all 
about the new baby, Jesus, that he spoke! 
He said, * I bring you good tidings of great 
joy, for unto you is born this day in the 
city of David ’ — that was another name for 
Bethlehem — ‘a Saviour which is Christ the 
Lord.’ 

“It was one angel who said that, but 



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24 


RUTH IE ' S STORY. 


then suddenly with the one there were 
ever, ever so many more — oh, a great 
crowd of them, all beautiful and shining, 
and all singing and praising God, they 
were so glad that Jesus was born. They 
stayed just a little while, and then went 
away back to heaven again. The shep- 
herds came hurrying to Bethlehem to find 
the dear baby that the angels knew and 
loved so well. 

“Tom, why do you trouble me so when 
I am trying to talk ? Obey mamma ! It 
makes me feel badly when my little boy is 
naughty. Come here and sit by me till I 
am through. 

“Now I will tell about one other thing 
almost as pretty as that, which happened 
just a little later. Then I will recite to 
you some verses, and that will be all for 
this time. 

“ This part of the story begins just as the 
other did. You must know that in a coun- 
try far away from Bethlehem there lived 


RUTHIE AND THE BABY JESUS. 25 

some very wise men. They were called 
— I don’t remember what. Was it magi? 
Yes, I think that was it — magi, men who 
were very wise. 

“Well, one night the magi saw a great 
new star in the sky, as bright as though 
many little stars had been melted together 
to make one big one. And some way they 
knew what it meant — -just as though it had 
been an angel up there with a bright gold 
trumpet calling down to them, ‘ Come, fol- 
low me ! Follow me to where baby Jesus 

• y 
IS. 

“ So some of the wise men — I think there 
were about three of them, though nobody 
knows for certain — traveled away and 
away for days and days, until at last they 
came to a great and beautiful city. It was 
Jerusalem, not far from the village of Beth- 
lehem. 

“ By this time the men had lost sight of 
the star; but when they went on after a while 
from Jerusalem, lo ! there was the beautiful 


2 6 


RUTHIE’S STORY. 



saw it, and they followed on until the star 
came and stood over where the young 
child was. 


star again, shining close before them. What 
do you think ? It was going to show them 
just where the baby lived. 

“ They were very, very glad when they 


FOLLOWING THE STAR. 



THE FIRST CHRISTMAS GIFTS. 


28 


RUTH IE ' S STORY. 


“ That was the end of their great journey. 
They unpacked the presents which they 
had brought all that long way for the 
child Jesus. They were very rich pres- 
ents, gold and — Something with a long 
name. Mother told me what it was, but 
I don’t remember. Any way, it was some- 
thing that smelled sweet. And there was 
something else that they brought, but I 
don’t think little girls can remember every- 
thing ; do you ? 

“They brought the presents because 
they thought Jesus was going to be a king 
some time. Perhaps he was ; I don’t know. 
Mother is going to tell me more about 
that. 

“Well, when they had unpacked the 
gifts, and had found the house, they came 
in, and there they saw at last the young 
child with Mary his mother, and they were 
very glad; and he was so beautiful they 
just fell down and worshiped him, and 
then they gave him the presents. 


RUTH 1 E AND THE BABY JESUS. 29 

“ Do you know those were the very first 
Christmas gifts that were ever given in the 
world, unless we call the little baby himself 
a Christmas gift? for it was in the Christmas- 
time that all these wonderful things hap- 
pened. The Christmas-times began then 
just because of these nice things, mother 
says. If Jesus had not been born, there 
never would have been any Christmas. 

“ I told you I would recite some verses. 
I think these are ever so pretty. They 
are Cousin Will’s. These I can sing: 


“‘UNDER A STAR. 



30 


RUTH IE'S STORY. 


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“ * Under a star lies a baby dear 

Watched by the angels that hover near ; 
Jesus, Immanuel, Saviour called — 

Baby asleep where the beasts are stalled. 

“ * Under the stars watch a shepherd-band ; 
Hark ! from the angels a message grand : 
“ Jesus the Saviour is born below.” 

Quickly to Bethlehem they go, 

“ ‘ Glowing in beauty in Eastern skies, 

Magi behold a new star arise ; 

Eager are they from their store to bring 
Gifts that shalj honor the promised King. 


RUTHIE AND THE BABY JESUS. 3 1 

“ * Over the desert slow camels go, 

Bearing to Judah the magi so; 

Now they have found him and given their store — 
Found him a baby, yet something more. 

“‘Found him Immanuel, “God with us” — 

Under the star they have found him thus ; 
Shepherds and magi and all men there 
Wonder and worship the baby fair. 

“ ‘ Under the stars let the children all 
Sing of that baby asleep in a stall, 

Praise it and love it, wee baby fair 
Found by the magi and shepherds there.’ 

“ I like this ; don’t you ? There is one 
part of it I can’t understand very well now, 
but mother says I will some time : 

“‘MARY AND THE CHILD. 

“ ‘ Oh, the stars are bright, 

But a lovelier sight, 

And dearer far, 

Is my baby- star. 

“ * With your shining face 
In this lowly place, 

Fair Jesus, my boy, 

What thoughts of joy 


32 


RUTH IE'S STORY. 


Are in your mind ? 

For ever I find, 

As you turn to me, 

That you seem to be 
With wonder filled, 

With gladness thrilled. 

“ ‘ Is’t the song you hear 
Of the angels dear, 

Sung soft in the light 
Of the silvery night? 

“ ‘ Is’t the star you see 
Of the magi three, 

With their gold-gifts fair 
And their incense rare, 

As though it were meet 
Thus humbly to bring 
To my baby’s feet 
Gifts fit for a king? 

Yet a king thou art, 

In thy mother’s heart. 

“ * Oh, I tremble ! Oh, I fear ! 

Close I hold my baby dear; 

I seek to fly — I know not why — 

As though some danger now were nigh. 
I seem to stand in dreams and see — 
But what do I see ? It cannot be ! 


RUTHIE AND THE BABY JESUS. 


33 


It cannot be ! A crown, a scourge, a spear ! 

And yet, and yet, old Simeon’s word of fear— 

A cross ! and One thereon ! 

Oh, I would fain lie down and die in joy 
With thee upon my breast, my boy, my boy ! 

“ ‘ It does not last : 

The dream is past; 

And, my baby-child, 

’Twas when you smiled 
In mother’s face 
That the vision wild 
To peace gave place. 

“ ‘ Oh, my baby-boy, 

Whence the wonderful joy 
That shines in your eyes 
While the daylight dies ? 

“ ' Ah ! sometimes it seems 
That this child of my dreams 
Has a wonderful love 
Like God’s above, 

And that thence is the joy 
Of my heaven-born boy.’ 

“Now, Charlie and Nellie, I’m tired talk- 
ing ; besides, I have told you all mother 
has told me. Some time she will tell me 


3 


34 


RUTH IE ' S STORY. 


more, and then I will tell it to you, and per- 
haps to Susan Jane and the rest if they are 
good children. — Oh, Nellie, it is very hard 
for them always to behave as little ladies 
and gentlemen should. But you must ex- 
cuse them. I do believe they behave just as 
well as they can ; and even we, you know, 
don’t always do that. Now let’s put them 
to bed, and then go out doors for a run. 
But you be sure and come round in the 
morning.” 



I T is all dark. Only off in the east there 
is a bit of morning light, waiting as 
though it had come early to show the great 
sun the way. Only a bit of silver light is 
in the sky — not enough to put out the 
stars, yet enough to waken the birds. Just 
now one tiny brown sparrow has flown 
down from its nest under the eaves and 
perched right on the sill of Ruthie’s little 
bedroom window. The sparrow peeps in, 
and there is Ruthie sound asleep in her 
white bed. Birdie gives a little rippling 
laugh — a bird-laugh — and flies away for a 

35 


36 


RUTH IE ' S STORY. 


minute. Here he is, back with a flock of 
his mates. They stand in a line close by 
the glass. Now they are ready, and sud- 
denly, all together, they just open their little 
mouths, and sing and sing and sing, and 
twitter and ripple and laugh, and sing and 
sing again, as though they were made 
of nothing but music and feathers. They 
stop and peep in. Yes, they have wak- 
ened Ruthie — they thought they could ; 
and there she is, sitting up and laughing 
back at them. They see her, and away 
they fly in a hurry, twittering and laugh- 
ing as they go. 

Soon the great sun has followed the little 
light in the sky. The new day has come, 
and everything at last is wide awake. 

Presently the front door opens, and there 
stands Ruthie, looking bright and happy, 
and as though she too could sing, and thank 
God with the birds for the care of the night 
and for the beautiful new day. She stays 
only a minute now, but she is out again after 


RUTH IE AND THE BOY JESUS. 3 7 

breakfast with her dolls, Susan Jane on one 
arm and Ann and Tom under the other. 
She goes to her play-house under the 
apple and willow trees. By the time her 
children are washed and dressed Nellie 
has come with her hands full of dolls, and 
Charlie has come with his hands — in his 
pockets. 

Nellie is eager to have Ruth talk to 
them again : 

“ Oh, Ruthie, did your mother tell you 
more of the story last night?” 

“Yes, Nellie, and it was very nice; I’ll 
begin telling it to you in a minute. But 
you’ve forgotten something: we haven’t 
introduced the children.” 

“ Oh no ! — Miss Susan Jane and Ann 
and Tom, these are my children, Caroline 
and Catharine and Dorothy. Make your 
bows. Well, now I am ready to begin 
the story. — But, Charlie dear — I don’t like 
to ask you ; I wouldn’t if it wasn’t for Tom. 
But for Tom’s sake, Charlie : for the ex- 


38 


RUTH IE'S STORY. 


ample, you know — will you not take your 
hands out of your pockets, please?” 

“ Oh yes, of course I will. I forgot all 
about Tom.” 

“Now I will begin. This time I am to 
tell you the story of the boy Jesus. Oh, it 
was a beautiful place where he lived — one 
of the prettiest places in all Palestine, my 
cousin Will says. He says it was like a 
nest, only, instead of being built with sticks 
and bits of straw and moss, it was made of 
pretty hills all piled together. Then it 
was carpeted with grass and flowers, and 
down in the middle were put the little 
white houses ; they were the eggs in the 
nest. The name of the nest was Naz- 
areth. 

“ But I forgot ; it was a good while after 
Jesus was born in Bethlehem before he 
came to live in Nazareth — a good many 
months. And where do you suppose he 
was all that time ?” 

“I don’t know. Was it in Bethlehem ?” 


RUTH IE AND THE BOY JESUS. 39 

“ No. He and his mother and father had 
been only a little time in Bethlehem, when 
one night, while they were all asleep, there 
came into the room a splendid great angel. 
He had come straight from heaven. His 
name was Gabriel, and he told Joseph that 
right away, quick, he must take his little 
boy and the mother and flee into Egypt, 
and that he must stay there until he was 
told that it was safe for him to come 
back home again. 

“ Egypt was ever so far off, and Mary 
and Joseph would rather have gone back 
to their pretty home in Nazareth, but they 
obeyed the angel : they were certain that 
he knew what was best. And then they 
were frightened, too, about their little boy ; 
for the angel had told them that a bad man 
wanted to kill the dear little fellow, and for 
no other reason than because he was afraid 
the wise men were right when they said 
that Jesus would grow some time to be a 
king. So, just as soon as they could get 


40 


RUTH IE'S STORY , i 


ready — that very morning — they started 
away. I suppose they were afraid at first, 
but I do think that as soon as they were 
far enough off to be safe they must have 



THE FLIGHT INTO EGYPT. 


had just a lovely time. Mother says no- 
body knows much about it, but I think it 
was like a picnic. — Don’t you, Nellie?” 

“ Perhaps there were robbers.” 

“ But if there were, they wouldn’t hurt 


RUTHIE AND THE BOY JESUS. 4 1 

anybody with a little boy. — Would they, 
Charlie ?” 

“ I know very well I wouldn’t, if I was a 
robber.” 

“ But, Ruthie, what if it should be stormy? 
What if the baby were to get sick and cold? 
And how tired they would be when night 
came !” 

“Well, I suppose it might have been bad; 
but the angel had told them to go to Egypt, 
and of course God would take care of them 
on the way. I don’t believe they would get 
so very tired, either ; they could stop to 
rest in all the nice places. And I suppose 
they had a little donkey to carry Mary and 
the baby — maybe a pretty little white don- 
key with a saddle of yellow velvet, and with 
a silk bridle, and tassels about his ears. 
Cousin Will showed me a picture of the 
donkeys they have in Egypt ; he says they 
are as nice as horses. There they have 
donkey-boys to take care of them and 
drive them.” 


42 


RUTH IE ' S STORY 


“ But, Ruthie, why do you say ‘ a white 
donkey ’ ?” 

“ Oh, I don’t know that it was white, Char- 
lie, but I like to think of it so ; I think of 



EGYPTIAN DONKEYS. 


everything about the little Jesus as being 
just as pretty and clean and nice as could 
be. Just think of the party there! What 
a pretty picture ! — Joseph leading the don- 
key, and Mary- mother riding on it, holding 


RUTH IE AND THE BOY JESUS. 43 

her precious baby-boy in her arms. In all 
the journey none of them were the least bit 
afraid, because they knew God was taking 
care of them every day, and this kept them 
from being worried. 

“Well, they reached Egypt at last, and 
there they lived a few months. Then they 
heard that the bad man was dead. Right 
off they started on their way back, and at 
the end of the journey they came to the 
dear little home-nest which I told you 
about among the hills in Nazareth, which 
the boy Jesus had never seen. Oh how 
glad they must have been to be at home 
again ! 

“ Joseph was a carpenter, so he would 
have everything nice about the little home; 
and Mary-mother would be sure to have 
sweet flowers everywhere ; and the flowers 
would bloom and the birds would sing ; 
and everybody in the village would love 
Mary and Joseph and Jesus. Then they 
would be loved more and more because 


44 


RUTH IE'S STORY 


they loved everybody and were trying in 
every way they could to help all to be 
good and happy. 

“ I expect that in so happy a home it 
seemed to Jesus as though the flowers and 
the trees all loved him as he loved them, 
and were wanting to talk to him, and that 
the birds loved him too, and when they 
sang were really just talking to him. 
What do you suppose it was that the 
birds sang to Jesus? Cousin Will says it 
* would have been something like this, if 
they could have talked: 

“ ‘ Oh, the hearts of us birdies are full of praise 
To the God who gives us the happy days. 

God gives us each tiny nest ; 

He feeds us with what is best. 

We can reap no harvest of grain 
To store in barns from the rain, 

Yet we never have cause for fear, 

For we know that the Father dear, 

In infinite love, 

From his throne above, 

Will surely take heed 
Of a bird’s least need. 


NAZARETH 







46 


RUTH IE ' S STORY. 


Ah! dear are we to the Father’s heart, 

Though worth in the world’s great mart, 

When bartered there, 

But a farthing' a pair.’ 

Then perhaps they would sing something 
about the boy Jesus, and what they sang 
would be like this ; 

“ ‘ Oh, our songs are bright 
And our hearts are light. 

For into the home 
Beneath the dome 
Of our arching trees 
There has come a joy : 

It’s a darling boy. 

He’s as glad as the breeze 
And fair as the flowers, 

And welcome as rain 
When it comes in showers 
To gladden again 
Hot summer hours. 

Oh, a thing of joy 
Is the darling boy : 

’Tis the Jesus child — 

Dear Jesus mild. 

Our songs we will raise 
In our darling’s praise 


inn 



THE SONG OF THE BIRDS 





48 


RUTHIE'S STORY. 


For ever and ever ; 

But, though we endeavor 
His worth to show, 

No bird-song, we know, 
Though we learned it well, 
Could begin to tell 



“THE BIRD SINGS HIS PRAISE.” 

Our infinite joy 
In the Jesus boy. 


“ ‘ No more to-day, 

For we cannot stay ; 


RUTH IE AND THE BOY JESUS. 49 

We must fly away 
To our work and our play. 

Sometimes we fly 
As low 

As a bird can go, 

And sometimes as high 
As the shining sky. 

Away ! 

For to-day 
We fly— 

We fly. 

Good-bye, 

Good-bye.’ 

“ So the happy days kept coming and 
going. I suppose Jesus played and worked 
just about as other little boys would have 
done — just as you would, Charlie — only he 
was never naughty. — But there are some 
folks who think that very wonderful things 
happened in his play, such as never could 
possibly have happened with any other boy 
in all the world. I don’t think he did any 
wonderful things; but if he did, it was be- 
cause Jesus was God’s own Son as well as 
Mary’s.” 


50 


RUTH IE'S STORY. 


“ But, Ruthie, aren’t we all God’s chil- 
dren ?” 

“Yes, but Jesus was different, mother 
says, because he was just like God in 
everything. And as he grew older, moth- 
er says, it was always just the same ; so if 
we children want to think of God, the best 
way for us is to think of him as the dear 
boy Jesus was when he grew to be a 
man. 

“ That is why some people tell wonder- * 
ful stories about what happened to him 
while he was a boy in Nazareth — because 
he was so much more like God than are 
other boys. Here is one of the stories. 
The Bible doesn’t tell it, so perhaps it isn’t 
true ; but it’s a real pretty little story, any 
way. 

“You know, Nellie and Charlie, how we 
sometimes play with the sand, wetting it 
and making it into all sorts of things — • 
cakes and pies and houses and forts and 
things. Well, the story says that one day 


RUTH IE AND THE BOY JESUS. 5 I 

Jesus and the other children were playing 
down near the spring, where there was 
some nice clay — clay is better than sand — 
and they were all making little play-birds 
with it. There was quite a flock of them, 
and they were shaped so prettily that a 
little way off they looked like real birds 
— only, of course, they were not alive. 
Then the children began wondering whether 
they could not do something more. They 
had made them look as if the clay birds 
were alive; couldn’t they make them really 
so, and send them flying away up into the 
trees ? Any way, they would try. 

“ So one after the other each little boy 
took his clay bird in his hand, and, saying, 
‘ Fly away, birdie, into the sky,’ tossed it 
into the air; but, instead of flying, every 
one fell right to the ground and broke all 
into little bits of common clay again, un- 
til it came Jesus’ turn ; his bird was the 
most beautiful of them all. When he took 
it in his hand and stroked its play-wings 


52 


RUTHIE'S STORY, 


and its little head, there was a strange look 
in his face, and his dark eyes were shining, 
and there seemed to be a light all around 
him. He just reached out his hand — so — 
and said clear and low, ‘ I give you life. 
Fly.’ And it wasn’t a clay bird any longer. 
It spread its wings, that were become white 
as snow ; it sang a glad little song ; it flew 
a few times around the children’s heads, 
close to Jesus’ lips. Then away, away, into 
the sky it went, as far as they could see, as 
though it was flying straight to heaven. 

“The children did not play any more. 
Jesus went home to Mary, his mother, and 
he was very still and quiet all day. He was 
thinking of the wonderful power which he 
had because he was God’s Son — the power 
of giving life to a bird. Perhaps some time 
he would give life to men. 

“Well, I’m almost tired talking, but I do 
want to tell you about one more thing that 
happened while Jesus was a boy. This is 
a true story, for it is in the Bible ; the story 


RUTHIE AND THE BOY JESUS. 53 

about the birds is not in the Bible. This was 
when he was just twelve years old. Then 
he took a journey to Jerusalem, to what 
was called the ‘ feast of the passover.’ All 
the men and all the boys who were twelve 
years old or over went to the passover 
feast every year. They had a beautiful 
time. Mother says that we have nothing 
now that is exactly like it, but that every- 
body was glad then, just as we are at our 
Fourth-of-July-time, and in another way at 
the feast of the Lord’s Supper. At the 
passover- time everybody was thankful to 
God and very glad. 

“ The women went, too, whenever they 
could. It was that way when Jesus was 
twelve years old. He and Joseph and 
Mary all went together up to beautiful 
Jerusalem, where the temple was, and a 
good many of the neighbors went with 
them. 

“ I can’t begin to tell you all the nice 
times they had, but the nicest part of it all 


54 


RUTH IE'S STORY. 


must have been when they went up to the 
great temple — their church, you know — on 
one of the hills of Jerusalem. It was built 
of white marble, and cedar, and gold, and 
silver. Then, besides the beautiful things 
he saw, Jesus heard lovely music from sil- 
ver trumpets, and cymbals, and harps, and 
trained voices of men and boys. He must 
have enjoyed hearing that, though it was 
not at all like the music of his birds among 
the trees in Nazareth. 

“ But, best of all, there were in the tem- 
ple very wise and good men to talk to the 
people and to teach them everything they 
wanted to know. Jesus found these good 
men were ready to talk even with a boy 
like him. They were not only willing to 
talk with him, but were glad to do it when 
they found what a good and wonderful boy 
he was. About some things he seemed to 
know as much as they knew. 

“Well, the family stayed at Jerusalem 
about a week, and then the passover feast 


RUTHIE AND THE BOY JESUS. 55 

was ended and it was time for everybody 
to go home. There was a great crowd- 
ing and confusion and hurry, there were 
so many people — thousands and thousands 
of them — all getting away at once. But 
the people from Nazareth all knew each 
other very well, and they kept close to- 
gether in a caravan, and after a few hours 
were clear of the worst of the crowd and 
hurrying along the road toward home.” 

“A crowd like that would have been a 
bad place for a boy to get lost in, wouldn’t 
it, Ruthie?” asked Charlie. 

“ Indeed it would, Charlie ! But what do 
you think? Jesus was lost in it. Oh how 
frightened his mother must have been when 
she found it out ! Where could her dear 
boy be ? Was he hurt or killed ? or was he 
wandering about somewhere frightened be- 
cause he could not find the way ? I don’t 
know how it happened. I suppose some 
of the neighbors had their children with 
them — friends of Jesus — and Mary thought 


56 


RUTH IE'S STORY 


Jesus was happy with them. But nowhere 
could they find the dear boy, and they had 
come ‘a day’s journey.’ Where was he, 
among all those thousands and thousands 
of people ? Was he lost, so that they could 
never find him? Would they never see 
their darling again — never have him any 
more in the pretty home among the birds 
and flowers? 

“Why, Nellie, just think how badly we 
should feel even if only one of our doll- 
children were lost. I believe if I didn’t 
know exactly where Susan Jane and Tom 
were, and what they were doing, I would 
just sit down and cry and cry.” 

“ Oh, Mary must have felt dreadfully.” 

“There was nothing for Mary and Jo- 
seph to do but to hurry back to Jerusalem 
in hope of finding Jesus there. They went 
back, and they did find him there. Oh 
how thankful they were! Where do you 
suppose it was in Jerusalem that they found 
him ? Why, he was up there in the temple, 






JESUS IN THE TEMPLE 



58 


RUTH IE 'S STORY. 


among those good men I told you about, 
talking with them and asking and answer- 
ing questions. I suppose he had been hav- 
ing so nice a time that before he knew it 
the others had all gone away without him ; 
and when he found it out, he could not fol- 
low them alone, so he just waited in the 
temple until they came after him. Or 
perhaps he thought it was such a good 
chance for him to talk with the wise men 
that it would be right for him to stay a 
little longer. Any way, it all happened be- 
cause he was so interested in everything 
about God, and in the work which God 
was getttng ready for him to do when he 
was a man. He would not have wanted to 
make Mary and Joseph, or any one, anx- 
ious about him if he could have helped it. 

“ They told the wise men ‘ Good-bye,’ 
and started again for home. I don’t know 
whether they overtook their neighbors or 
not — I guess not — but they came safely 
home at last ; and I do believe there wasn’t 


RUT HIE AND THE BOY JESUS. 59 

a kittie, or a doggie, or a bird, or a boy, or 
a girl, or anybody or anything, in all the 
town, but was glad to have them safe home 
again. Oh, but wouldn’t the birdies be 
ready to sing again with all their might 
the pretty bird-song to the dear boy they 
loved so well ? 

“ Now I can’t talk any more. And do 
see, Nellie! If the children haven’t all 
gone fast asleep ! That accounts for their 
being so very quiet. Well, I do think we 
have rather neglected them. Don’t you ?” 

“Yes, but I liked the story so much I 
forgot all about them.” 

“ Better leave the dolls at home next 
time, girls, in the nursery; that’s the best 
place for babies,” said Charlie. 

“ ‘ Babies ’ ! Why, Charlie dear, Tom is 
almost as old as you are, and I do think he 
is real well behaved. Any way, I never 
saw him stand with his hat on and his 
hands in his pockets whistling before the 
ladies.” 


6o 


RUTH IE ' S STORY. 


“ Oh, Nellie, you dear girl ! I will try 
and remember next time. There ! my 
hat’s off now and my hands are out of 
my pockets. Whatever you do with the 
dolls, don’t leave me out for the rest of 
the story. Is that all now?” 

“Yes, all for to-day.” 

“Then I am away.” 

“That’s what the birdies say: ‘Don’t 
stay. Good-bye ! good-bye !’ ” 



CHAPTER III. 

RUTH IE AND THE DEAR CHRIST JESUS. 

“TV /T OTHER dear, can I go over to 
1VX Nellie’s? I haven’t seen her for 
ever so long.” 

“Yes, only be back before dark. Will 
you take the dolls?” 

“ No, mother, not this time. I think we 
will want mostly to talk to-day.” 

“About something nice, I suppose?” 

“ Yes, something very nice. About what 
do you suppose ?” 

“About Baby Luther?” 

“No.” 

« The dolls ?” 

“ No. The rest of what you were tell- 
ing me. Don’t you know? About the 

dear Christ Jesus when he had gone away 

61 


62 


RUTH IE'S STORY. 


from the Nazareth home. I do believe 
Nellie will think that is nicer than the part 
about the boy Jesus, or even about the 
baby Jesus — some of it, any way.” 

“ It makes mother glad for her little 
girl to like such things and want to talk 
about them. Now, here is mother’s good- 
bye kiss for Ruth, and another kiss to 
take to Nellie. Good-bye. Have a happy 
time, and be back before the stars begin 
to twinkle.” 

Then little Lady Ruth sallied out among 
the flowers, that seemed to smile a happy 
“Good-morning” to her as she passed; 
under the great arching elms, that clasped 
their arms above her, as though they want- 
ed to play, 

“ Lift up the gates as high as the sky, 

And let Queen Ruth and her troop pass by.’' 


The leaves up there were all whispering it. 

When our little maid had “ passed by ” 
out of the shadows, she came suddenly 


RUTHIE AND THE DEAR CHRIST. 63 

into such a great laugh of sunshine that 
it made her laugh too — -just a soft, merry 
little laugh back to the sunlight. Then she 
reached the bridge over the brook, and 
stopped there — as she always did when 
there was time — to hear the brook talk. 
Its voice was very sweet, and she loved 
the words it always seemed to be singing 
to her: 

“ I run on tiptoe through the grass 
With laughing whispers as I pass — 

With whispers low to bending ferns, 

And showers of pearls for bluebell urns. 

“The swallows stoop to kiss: I run 
And bound away through shade and sun ; 

They cease for once their rapid chase 
Of insect prey with me to race. 

“ Like birds through air my minnows dart, 

Or where rough rocks my waters part 
And form still eddies dark and wide 
My speckled trout their beauties hide. 

“ The robin dips his yellow bill 
And steals my pearls ; he drinks his fill, 


6 4 


RUTHIE'S STORY. 


Then steals again a dainty bath 
Of sparkling gems, nor fears my wrath. 

“ On, on through lights and silver shades, 

And as I pass in quiet glades 
I paint beneath the flowered banks 
My pictures rare, nor care for thanks — 

“ My pictures free, yet kept from some; 

For when the reckless breezes come, 

I quickly weave of wavelets fair 
A magic veil, and stretch it there.” 

Those were the verses Ruth liked the 
best; but when she had plenty of time 
she would wait to hear the song out: 

“ I’ll play no more ’mid the cardinal flowers, 

Nor paint in the shade of jessamine bowers : 

I’ve a grander work, with a freer motion, 

Far away, away in the wild, wild ocean, 

“ Who can may play, and who can may be gay, 
With the world at work for its life to-day ; 

Where the ocean roars, and the winds rush free, 
And the thunders burst, there’s a work for me.” 

Just then who should Ruth see coming 
to meet her but “Charlie-boy ” himself, rosy 
with running and shouting. 


RUTH IE AND THE DEAR CHRIST. O5 

“Were you coming to see me, Charlie?” 

“Yes, Ruthie ; I was coming hippity, hop- 
pity, jumpity, jump, just as fast as ever I 
could.” 

“What for?” 

“ With an invitation.” 

“ For whom ?” 

“ For you.” 

“ From Nellie ?” 

“Yes, and this is it, — to please, to please, 
to please to come over to see her just as 
soon as ever you can. Now, if you’ll go 
right on, she’ll think for a minute that I 
must have flown to your house, to get you 
to her so soon.” 

“ Aren’t you going too ?” 

“No; I’ll stay a while by the brook. 
Mother said I might.” 

Little Lady Ruth walked on again up 
from the pleasant valley of the singing 
brook, and presently little Lady Nellie was 
welcoming her at the garden gate as 

though, instead of only a few days, it was 
5 


66 


RUTHIE ’S STORY. 


really “an age” since they had seen each 
other : 

“ Why, Ruthie dear, have you wings 
tucked away anywhere ? Are you a bird ? 
Did you fly? I wouldn’t have expected 
you for an hour yet.” 

Ruthie laughed: 

“That was just what Charlie said, when 
I met him at the bridge, that you would 
think.” 

The two girls went in doors for a few 
minutes, but before long they were out 
again and in the old orchard back of the 
house, perched there in Nellie’s favorite 
arm-chair — the curved limbs of a low- 
branching old apple tree. Then the an- 
ticipated talk began: 

“Nellie, when we were talking about 
Jesus the other day, it didn’t seem — did 
it? — as though he would ever stop being 
a beautiful boy and be grown up. But he 
did get grown up. 

“There is one very strange thing about 


RUTHIE AND THE DEAR CHRIST. 6j 

him when he became a young man. His 
father was a carpenter, and Jesus learned 
the carpenter’s trade, too. Only think of 
the dear Jesus working in the carpenter- 
shop all the long day ! How very tired 



CARPENTER’S SHOP AT NAZARETH. 


he must have been when the evening 
came ! 

“ But at last he went away from the 
Nazareth home, and we don’t know that 
he ever had a home of his own again 
until he died. 


68 


RUTH IE ' S STORY. 


‘Oh, Nellie, wouldn’t you be dreadfully 
sorry to have to go away from here, not 
ever to come home again all your life 
long ?” 

“I should cry and cry; I couldn’t help 
it.” 

“ Why do you suppose Jesus went away ? 
He didn’t have to. It was just because 
he loved everybody so much. He knew 
more about God than any one else who 
ever lived. He knew everything about 
God, and he was certain he could best make 
everybody good and happy by going right 
among people and showing them what God 
really is — how he is the dearest father or 
mother or sister or brother that ever was. 
He had come all the way from heaven just 
to do that. 

“ He showed people that God loves 
them, for he told them he was like God ; 
and then he went and did every possible 
kind thing he could think of for them. 
Oh, so many lovely things as he did do ! 


RUTH IE AND THE DEAR CHRIST. 69 


“ One of the loveliest of all the things 
that he did, I think, was one day when he 
must have been very tired, he had been 
walking so far. He came to a place where 



JESUS AND THE CHILDREN. 


there were some little children ; I suppose 
they were playing and they were so pretty 
he stopped to see them. Then perhaps one 
of the littlest of them hurt itself, and then 


70 


RUTH IE'S STORY. 


Jesus came right up toward them — for he 
would pity anything that was hurt, if it was 
only a little bird — and was going to com- 
fort the child. But some of the mothers 
who were there saw him just then. They 
knew him, and they caught up the babies, 
and called to the others, and came bringing 
them toward him to ask him to give them 
his blessing ; for that would seem to them 
like having the blessing of God. But what 
do you think, Nellie? Some of the men 
who were with Jesus just stopped them 
or were going to stop them. I . don’t sup- 
pose they meant to be unkind. They 
thought Jesus was too tired or hadn’t 
time — or something. 

“Then right away Jesus said to them, 
‘ Suffer little children to come unto me, 
and forbid them not ; for of such is the 
kingdom of heaven and then — oh, Nel- 
lie ! — he just stooped down and took those 
dear little things up in his arms and blessed 
them-— loved them, you know, just as moth- 


RUTH/E AND THE DEAR CHRIST. Jl 

ers d-o, and fathers, when we need to be 
petted. Oh, I think it was beautiful/’ 

“ Ruthie, very likely some of them were 
just as old as we are. Do you think he 
would have done it for us?” 

“Why, of course he would, if we had 
been there. There might not have been 
room in his arms, but then he would have 
stooped down and kissed us, and that 
would have been all the same. Wouldn’t 
we have reached up our arms around his 
neck and loved him ? It must have been 
a dear kind face. I know it was, or else 
the children would have been bashful, and 
the babies would have been afraid, and 
would have cried.” 

“We thought there could be hardly ; ny- 
thing nicer than what we talked about when 
we were thinking of the baby Jesus and of 
the -boy Jesus, but, Ruthie, I do think this 
is best of all.” 

“That is just what I said to mother.” 

“Oh, see there, Ruthie! Isn’t that cun- 


72 


kuthie’s story. 


rung? We could almost touch it, it seems 
so tame : 

“ * Robin, robin, up in the tree, 

Looking adown at me, 

Some men have fancied this of thee : 

Robins, they say, do certainly know 
All of the words that go 
Ever so softly to and fro.’ 

I do believe it is the same robin your cous- 
in Will said that to yesterday when he was 
out here to see my apple-tree chair. What 
a happy-looking little birdie it is ! 

“ ‘ All of the words that go 
Ever so softly, to and fro.’ 

Perhaps it knew what you said a minute 
ago about Christ’s loving the little birds.” 

“ Suppose we play it did, any way, be- 
cause now I am going to tell something 
more about Christ and the birds; and the 
flowers can listen, for there will be some- 
thing about them too. That part, though, 
will be about lilies, and there are no lilies 
here ; but the red clover and the white 


THE SEA OF GALILEE 













7 4 


RUTH IE ’S STORY. 


clover ought to be interested, for Christ 
meant them just as much as any flowers ; 
only I suppose they were not blossoming 
all around him as they are around us. 

“Well, it was one day when Jesus had 
gone up into a mountain with his disciples. 
The place was very beautiful. If he looked 
far away over other hills, he would see a 
mountain a great deal higher than the 
one he was on — so high that its top was 
always covered with snow. Then, right 
below him, straight down five hundred 
feet, there was a little plain, and beyond 
that, down five hundred feet more, was a 
lake that Cousin Will says is one of the 
prettiest lakes in all the world — the Lake 
of Gennesaret. It is so large some peo- 
ple call it a sea — the Sea of Galilee. 

“Well, when Jesus had come to a place 
a little way below the top of the mountain, 
he sat down there with his disciples, and a 
great many people came gathering about 
to hear what he would say, for they knew 


RUTH IE AND THE DEAR CHRIST. 


75 


he would say something that it would be 
.well worth their while to hear. Jesus 
talked to them for a long time. 

“And, little robin up in the tree, do you 
know ? One of the very sweetest things of 
all that he said was about little birds of the 
air like you. — And right with it, pretty red 
clover and white clover down in the grass, 
do you know ? He said something about 
flowers like you — about lilies that could 
have been no sweeter and no more pret- 
tily dressed than are you. And all that 
he said was meant to make people un- 
derstand how it is certain that God will 
take care of them always — always; so 
they needn’t ever be afraid. 

“ He said what nobody ever really knew 
before about you, birdie — that it is God 
who feeds you and takes care of you. 
This is what he said. Isn’t it sweet? — ‘ Be- 
hold the fowls of the air, for they sow not, 
neither do they reap, nor gather into barns: 
yet your heavenly Father feedeth them/ 


y6 RUTH IE'S STORY. 

Another time he said this : ‘ Are not two 
sparrows sold for a farthing ? and not one 
of them shall fall to the ground without 
your Father.’ 

“ This, pretty clover-blossoms, is what he 
said about you : ‘ Consider the lilies of the 
field, how they grow. They toil not, nei- 
ther do they spin ; and yet I say unto you, 
that even Solomon in all his glory was not 
arrayed like one of these.’ 

“ Then he said to the men and women 
and children around him, ‘ Are ye not much 
better than they?’ Of course they all knew 
that they were much better than birds and 
flowers. 

“You are very pretty, blooming clover 
among the grass, and you are a very pretty 
little birdie, robin-birdie up in the apple tree, 
with your black eyes, and it is very sweet 
to know that God is taking care of you, but 
it is sweeter to know that just as much as 
Nellie and I are bigger and better than you 
is God’s care for us. Jesus Christ said so. 


RUTHIE AND THE DEAR CHRIST 77 

He said that much more would God feed 
us and clothe us and care for us every day. 
He sa ; d to all those people upon the moun- 
tain, ‘ Be not therefore anxious, saying - , 
What shall we eat ? or What shall we 
drink ? or Wherewithal shall we be clothed ? 
for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye 
have need of all these things.’ 

“So, when your feathers are ruffled, 
birdie, or when our dresses don’t suit us, 
Nellie, or our dolls’ dresses — or anything 
— why, no matter: we must not be anxious. 
We haven’t much now, I know, to be anx- 
ious about, but think how many people 
there are all about us who need just what 
Jesus told the people that day! 

“ How glad some of the poor tired moth- 
ers must have been, Nellie, when they heard 
Jesus tell how it was certain that God would 
take care of them ! and perhaps some of 
them had little girls like us at home, wait- 
ing to hear what word they would bring 
back from Jesus. When mother was tell- 


78 


RUTH IE ' S STORY. 


ing me all about it, it seemed as though I 
never would be troubled by anything again, 
and as though I would never be afraid of 
anything, either. Why should we be afraid, 
when Jesus says we needn’t be?” 

“ He didn’t say it to us, Ruth.” 

“ But mother says he meant it of our 
birds and flowers and for us just as much 
as he meant it for the boys and girls who 
heard him then in Palestine. Sometimes I 
shut up my eyes and play Jesus is close 
by me talking to me. Suppose, Nellie, he 
were to come walking, walking up through 
the orchard, now, all tall and beautiful, and 
were to come walking, walking till he was 
right here in the clover by our tree, and 
then were to stop and look up and see the 
little real robin and us two big play- robins 
perched in the tree? I expect he would smile 
a quiet little smile, and then would begin talk- 
ing to us in just about that very same way. 
Wouldn’t it be nice if we really could see 
him and hear him? Mother says we can 


RUTHIE AND THE DEAR CHRIST. 79 

some time if we love him. Of course we 
love him ; so some time we shall see him. 
Will not that be nice ? 

“ Now, robin, you needn’t listen any 
longer unless you want to, for I’m going 
to tell something else about Jesus that per- 
haps wouldn’t interest you. It isn’t about 
birds and flowers, but about a dear little 
girl. He did something for her, Nellie, 
that you would hardly believe could be 
true, it was so wonderful. I don’t know 
what the little girl’s name was — I wish I 
did. What shall I call her, Nellie?” 

“ Didn’t Jesus call her by her name ?” 

“No; he just spoke of her as a ‘little 
damsel.’ ” 

“That is pretty. You can call her that 
— Tittle damsel.’” 

“ I know how old she was : she was 
twelve years old. She lived in a town 
where Christ often came, and where a 
good many of his friends lived, and it was 
close to the Sea of Galilee. What lovely 


8o 


RUTH IE ’S STORY. 


times the little damsel must have had be- 
fore she was sick going out walking and 
rowing and playing on the beach ! I won- 
der if her father didn’t give her a little 
painted boat all for her own ? Then she 
would go out sometimes alone, and some- 
times the other boys and girls would be 
with her ; and in the hot summer days the 
pleasantest time would be by moonlight. 
They would row and row, and when it was 
time to say ‘ Good-night,’ and to row away 
home, they would sing easy good-night 
boat-songs — like this, that cousin Will 
taught me : 

“ ‘ Thus we row lightly now 
On the sea, 

Singing free, glad as thou, 

Galilee ! 

“ ‘ Like thy waves beating time 
On our boat, 

Beat our hands to our rhyme 
While we float. 

“‘Shadows deep round us creep; 

Now good-night : 


RUTH IE AND THE DEAR CHRIST. 8 1 

Spirits kind watch will keep 

Till the light. Good-night.’ ” 

“Just out of the town there were very 
nice walks among the hills and olive-groves, 
and not far away were swift brooks, and 
fountains where the water came bubbling 
up from the ground all the year through, 
and where bright little lizards loved to run 
in and out among the stones when the sun 
was hot, and where the prettiest of flowers 
bloomed. 

“ Oh, on the water and among the hills 
and in her pretty home this was a happy, 
happy little girl. Her father was one of 
the chief men in the synagogue ; that was 
the name of their church. They had a 
great many friends. Everybody loved the 
little damsel, so you can imagine, Nellie, 
what a dreadful time it must have been 
when suddenly she was taken very, very 
sick. What could they do? They tried 
everything, but she just grew worse and 


worse. 


82 


RUTH IE'S STORY. 


“ Then her father thought of Jesus. Jesus 
loved little children so much, and he was 
such a wonderful man, perhaps he could 
help them, the father thought. 'Just as soon 
as he could he found Jesus, and this is what 
he said to him : ‘ My little daughter lieth 
at the point of death ; I pray thee come 
and lay thy hands on her, that she may be 
healed/ 

“ You see, Nellie, Jesus had already made 
a great many sick people well ; he could do 
such things because he had come from 
heaven and was different from, all other 
men in the world — wiser and better and 
stronger. He was God as well as man. 
He could tell the sickness to go away, and 
it would obey him. It was because the lit- 
tle damsel’s father knew all about this that 
he asked Jesus to*come right away as quick 
as he could and save his little girl ; per- 
haps he would be in time, he thought, if 
he hurried. 

“Jesus started with him at once, and a 


RUTHIE AND THE DEAR CHRIST. 83 

good many of the people that were with 
him followed him ; but they had gone only 
a little way when a poor sick woman met 
Jesus. She greatly needed his help, and 
he stopped and talked kindly with her 
and helped her. Then, just as they were 
going on again, some one came from the 
damsel’s home and told them that it was too 
late now — that it would be no use for Jesus 
to come, for that the dear little girl was dead. 
Oh how badly her father must have felt! 
If only he had found Christ a little sooner! 
It must have seemed very strange to him 
that Jesus did not feel badly too. Jesus 
told him not to be afraid, and as they came 
near the house he tried to quiet the people 
who were weeping there around the door. 
They could not understand what he meant. 
How could they help crying ? 

“Jesus went into the house. They 
showed him the room, and there lay the 
dead damsel — the same little girl he had 
often seen playing in the street, and had 


8 4 


RUTH IE ' S STORY. 


heard laughing and calling, and maybe 
had talked with. 

“Oh, Nellie, would you think that such 
a thing could ever have been as happened 
then? Jesus told every one to go away 
excepting three of his disciples and the 
father and mother. Then he turned to- 
ward the dead child. She was really dead. 
He took her hand, and just quietly told her 
to rise up. Why, Nellie, it almost takes my 
breath away to think of it. He said, ‘ Rise 
up,’ and she rose up and came to him hap- 
py and well. He had made her alive again. 
Oh how thankful and glad they all were ! 

“That was one of Christ’s many won- 
derful works. Mother says he was doing 
them ’most all the time, because he loved 
the people, and wanted them to love him 
and to be ready to believe all that he taught 
them about God and heaven and about what 
God wanted them to do.” 

“Well, Ruthie, I don’t see how anybody 
could possibly help loving Jesus and want- 





) ) 




JESUS RAISING THE “ LITTLE DAMSEL 



86 


RUTHIE'S STORY. 


ing to do everything he said. I know no 
little girls could.” 

“ I don’t believe anybody could that really 
knew him ; but there were ever so many 
bad people all about him who did not want 
to love him, and to believe what he taught, 
and to be good, and to do as he said they 
ought to do ; they were mostly proud peo- 
ple, and the wrong kind of rich people, and 
selfish people. Mother says that those bad 
people did everything they could against 
him. Oh how sorry that must have made 
him, when he wanted to help everybody 
and to have everybody love him ! 

“ Do you know, Nellie, I believe I love 
Jesus more just because there were times 
when he must have felt so sorry and tired 
and lonesome, when people wouldn’t be 
good and were unkind to him, though he 
was trying to help them ? Aren’t you al- 
ways sorry for any persons that seem to feel 
badly about anything? I am.” 

“Yes, Ruthie ; it makes me wish I could 


RUTHIE AND TIIE DEAR CHRIST 87 

do something to comfort them. I felt just 
that way only the other day. Let me think 
— it was day before yesterday. I was going 
down the street. I was real happy, it was 
such a cheery morning. When I was a 
little way beyond where the path turns off 
to the burying-ground, I saw a lady coming 
toward me. I didn’t know who she was ; I 
had never seen her. She was walking very 
slowly, as though she were tired. She was 
carrying a little basket in her hand piled 
full of the prettiest white flowers. I was 
thinking how very pretty they were, and 
how white they showed against her black 
dress, and wondering where she could have 
got them ; so I hardly looked at her face 
until we were just meeting. 

“ Then I looked up, and, Ruthie, there was 
something in her look at me that made me 
stop right where I was. Her face was pale, 
but it was so sweet — almost the sweetest 
face I ever saw, and she was looking — oh, so 
lovingly, Ruthie ! — right deep into my eyes. 


88 


RUTH IE'S STORY. 


Then I could see that there were tears in 
her eyes. She was going by, but it seemed 
as though she wanted to stop; and I thought 
she leaned just a little bit toward me ; and 
do you know, Ruthie — I suppose I wouldn’t 
have done it if I had taken time to think — 
I just reached out my arms, and when she 
stooped down I put them around her neck 
and kissed her ; and she said softly, ‘ God 
bless you, dear child! You are greatly 
like the little one who has gone to Jesus.’ 
I shall always love her, Ruthie, even if I 
never see her again ; and I wish the white 
rosebud she gave me would never fade.” 

“It makes me wish I could kiss her too 
and tell her I love her.” 

“Yet you haven’t seen her, Ruthie.” 

“ No, but I do love her. It’s just the 
same, Nellie, as a part of what I feel about 
Jesus. We haven’t really seen him; but 
when we hear about him and talk about 
him, we can’t help just loving him — can 
we ? — and being glad he loves us. And 


RUTH IE AND THE DEAR CHRIST. 89 

it does make me love him more to think 
how tired and sorry he often was. Why, 
Nellie, just think how very sorry, very sad 
he must have been one day ! It was a day 
when he was crossing a beautiful moun- 
tain near Jerusalem — the Mount of Olives. 
They called it that because there were so 
many groves of olive trees over it. Now 
there are almost no trees there, Cousin 
Will says. Well, Jesus came up the 
mountain and around one side of it, near- 
er and nearer to the city, and by and by 
suddenly he came to a place where all at 
once he saw Jerusalem right before him. 

“ Oh, it was a great fair city ! and there 
was the temple in it ; and he thought how 
he had tried to help the people to be good, 
and he knew that because they wouldn’t 
love him and do as he taught very soon a 
great army would come and kill all those 
people and burn the temple and their 
homes. To think of it all — of their not 
loving him, when they were so dear to him, 


9 o 


RUTH IE'S STORY. 


and of their being killed ! It made him 
so very sad that he really wept, Nellie. 
I learned the Bible verses that tell about it; 
they are easy for us to understand, for we 
know how much the mother-hens love the 
little chickens that they feed and shelter 
under their wings: ‘ O, Jerusalem, Jeru- 
salem, thou that killest the prophets and 
stonest them which are sent unto thee, how 
often would I have gathered thy children 
together even as a hen gathereth her chick- 
ens under her wings, and ye would not F 

“So, you see, Nellie we can’t help lov- 
ing Jesus, because he loved little children 
so much — and loved everybody; and then 
we have to love him more when we think 
how sorry he often was because people 
were bad and cruel. It seems to me 
everything makes us love him more. Lis- 
ten, Nellie !” 

“It’s Charlie whistling; he whistles like 
a bird. He’ll be here in a minute. He 
knows where to find us. Here he comes 


JERUSALEM FROM THE MOUNT OF OLIVES 



> 






92 


RUTH IE 'S STORY. 


— and here he is . — Jump up here, Charlie; 
there’s plenty of room for us all.” 

“Just for a minute or so, Nellie,” said 
Charlie. 

“It is only ‘for a minute or so’ longer 
that I can stay. The sun is almost down, 
and mother told me to be home before the 
stars came out. Charlie, 1 wish you had 
been here all the time to hear our talk.” 

“ I wish I had been, Ruth ; but Nellie will 
tell it to me, and that will be next best. — 
Will you not, Nellie?” 

“Yes, to-morrow or some time. — I don’t 
want you to go, Ruthie dear. Isn’t there 
one thing more you can say before you go?” 

“ Suppose we say together the Lord’s 
Prayer, Nellie and Charlie? That will be 
a very nice ‘ Good-night.’ ” 

So the sweet young voices, there in the 
old apple tree, reverently repeated the 
words : 

“Our Father which art in heaven, Hal- 
lowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. 


RUTH IE AND THE DEAR CHRIST 93 

Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heav- 
en. Give us this day our daily bread. 
And forgive us our debts, as we forgive 
our debtors. And lead us not into temp- 
tation, but deliver us from evil. For thine 
is the kingdom, and the power, and the 
glory, for ever. Amen.” 

The little bird had found its perch for 
the night. Soon, with its head curtained 
under its soft wing, it would be fast asleep, 
hardly more than a little puff of feathers 
there in the great tree and the darkness, 
yet safe in the Father’s keeping. Under 
the tree the clover could not sleep ; it 
would keep watch till morning. Most of 
the flowers are a very wakeful little people. 
The sun was down, and slowly, slowly the 
light was fading over the earth. 

There was still a glow of crimson and 
gold in the west when Ruthie reached 
home. A little later, and all the stars 
were out and all the bright eyes were 
asleep. Night had come. 


CHAPTER IV. 

RUTH IE AND THE SLEEPING JESUS . 

HERE is Ruthie now? In her 



snowy-white bedroom, that is as 


neat as neat can be, that is tiny enough 


to be a nest and large enough to hold two 
chintz-covered chairs besides the bed. It 
has white curtains at its two windows, and 
on its walls are hung pretty pictures. The 
prettiest of them, Ruthie thinks, is one of 
Jesus blessing little children and saying, 
“ Suffer little children to come unto me.” 

One of the windows looks to the east. 
It is there that the brown birdies come to 
twitter their “Good-mornings.” The other 
window looks to the west, far away toward 
the splendid sky-doors that Ruthie says 
seem to open before the setting sun. But 


RUTH IE AND THE SLEEPING JESUS. 95 

there is no sun to-day. The doors in the 
east and the doors in the west are shut 
fast, and over them and over everything 
is drawn a great gray mist-curtain. 

It is a rainy day. Ruthie stands at the 
west window with her face close to the 
panes looking rather sober for her, as 
thoueh a bit of the cloudiness outside — 
just a tiny shred of it — had somehow crept 
within. Listen to her singing softly: 


“ ‘ Rain, rain, go away ; 

Come again another day, 

Clouds, clouds, go, I say ! 

You are keeping me from play. 

“ ‘ Rain and clouds, you must obey ; 
You are naughty still to stay — 
Still to keep the sun away, 

Still to keep me from my play. ” 

But the rain sings back to her: 

“ * I’m not naughty, Ruthie, dear ; 
God on high has sent me here; 
All the little birds are glad : 

Only little girls are sad. 


9 6 


RUTH IE'S STORY. 


“ ‘ I must wash the dusty flowers 
I must work for many hours ; 
Drooping roses I must raise — 

Roses tired of sunny days. 

“ * Earth is all so brown and dry 
Many things would surely die 
Had not God, my Ruthie dear, 

Seen their need and sent me here.” 


As though the rain really sang that, Ruth- 
ie’s face brightens. The little cloud within 
has drifted away, though the rain outside 
pours harder and harder, sings louder and 
louder. She turns away, and, taking a book 
from the shelf, sits down to read a while. 
But she isn’t in the mood for reading. 
She sits and thinks, and while she thinks, 
some way, her face grows rather sad again. 
What is she thinking about? About Jesus 
and what she will have to tell Nellie the 
next time she sees her. 

Just then there comes a light knock; 
the door opens, and who should it be but 
Nellie herself, waterproof and hood and 


RUTH IE AND THE SLEEPING JESUS. 97 

umbrella, and all? She has come sooner 
than Ruthie expected her. 

“Why, Nellie, Nellie, Nellie, you dear 
girl ! Where did you come from ?” 

“ Play I came floating down with the 
raindrops out of the clouds. See! some 
of them I have brought right in here with 
me.” 

“ Then you are a fairy ; and if the rain 
brought you, I’m glad it rains.” 

So by and by two little ladies instead 
of one were sitting in the rocking-chairs 
by the window. The gray light from the 
cloud-curtain filled the room ; no sunbeams 
could find their way through ; but the chil- 
dren hardly noticed the clouds. In their 
hearts there were shadows coming and 
going while they talked, and sometimes 
there were drops falling that were not 
raindrops ; for parts of the story to-day 
were very sad. 

“ Nellie, I was thinking, just as you came 

in, of what I would have to tell you next 
7 


RUTH IE'S STORY. 


about Jesus. It is something that was very 
dreadful at the time, and that would be 
almost too sad to talk about now, only 
mother says that what came after it was 
as bright and glad as this part is sor- 
rowful. 

“Now let me think: where shall I be- 
gin ? Do you remember one of the last 
things I told you the other day in the ap- 
ple tree? It was about some of the peo- 
ple who, instead of loving Jesus, were do- 
ing all they could to harm him. Well, 
those people grew worse and worse, and 
I must tell you to-day, Nellie, the dread- 
ful thing they did at last. 

“It wasn’t all at once. Jesus knew it 
was coming, but hardly any one else knew 
about it. Indeed, a good many thought 
that, instead of being made to die, Jesus 
was going to be a great King to rule over 
the Jews and to conquer their enemies. 
It all happened in about a week. 

“Jesus had been away in a region be- 


RUTHIE AND THE SLEEPING JESUS. 99 

yond the river Jordan ; now he was on his 
way back to Jerusalem. He knew there 
were a great many bad people there who 
did not love him, and would even like to 
kill him, but he was not one bit afraid. He 
was very brave, and, besides, he was will- 
ing to die if that would help any one to 
love him more, and to be good and kind, 
and to reach heaven at last. Now, Nellie, 
how do you suppose Jesus came into Jeru- 
salem ? Oh, there’s Charlie ! — Come in, 
Charlie, but you’ll have to bring a chair. 
Bring one from the sitting-room, please.” 

“ I’d rather sit on the floor, Ruthie, here 
by the window. May I?” 

“Yes; only you must listen and not be 
looking out at the fog.” 

“ Well, if it is interesting, I’ll listen ; if it 
isn’t, why then by and by I’ll just slip away 
— perhaps through the door, perhaps out 
of the window. Will that do ?” 

“Yes; now listen. I was just going to 
tell Nellie how Jesus came that day into 


IOO 


RUTHIE'S STORY. 


Jerusalem. He came riding — riding down 
the hill on a little colt which a man had 
let his disciples take. There were a great 
many people in Jerusalem at this time, and 
they knew that he was coming ; so a large 
crowd of them ran out to meet him. They 
really thought he was coming this time to 
be their king. They ran through a gate 
that was in the great city-wall, and down a 
little hill to a brook — about as large as our 
brook, Charlie — across the bridge, and up 
the mountain beyond ; not straight up to 
the top, but around one side. They went 
hurrying along. I don’t see how the chil- 
dren who were there kept up without get- 
ting out of breath, but I suppose they were 
used to running. Well, in a few minutes 
there was Jesus before them, coming round 
a curve in the path. 

“ Then oh, but how excited they were ! 
They didn’t know what to do, they were so 
glad. They jumped, and they ran, and 
they shouted, and they waved branches of 






102 


RUTHIE'S STORY. 


palm trees ; and when they saw he was 
riding on a colt, it made them gladder 
still. 

“Now, Ruthie,” said Charlie, “I don’t 
see why they should care so much for that. 
If they thought he was going to be their 
king and to drive away all their enemies, 
I don’t see why they wouldn’t have been 
better pleased if he had come riding on a 
splendid great black war-horse that nobody 
could ride but himself, or in a chariot with 
scythes on its wheels, and with crowds of 
armed soldiers all about him. Wouldn’t 
that have been more like a kine?” 

“ Oh, but, Charlie, that wasn’t what they 
wanted. It pleased them for him to come 
in just the way he did, for as soon as they 
saw him they remembered how one of their 
wise men had said, a long, long while be- 
fore, that the great King, when he came, 
would surely come just as they saw Jesus 
coming now — riding on a colt. They were 
so glad they just took off their coats and 



JESUS ENTERS JERUSALEM. 




104 


RUTH IE 'S STORY. 


spread them down for a carpet for Christ 
to ride over. 

“Then they all gathered around him and 
behind him, and the children had a little 
song ; they shouted, ‘ Hosanna to the Son 
of David ! Blessed is He that cometh in 
the name of the Lord;’ and they waved their 
branches, and more and more people met 
them ; and so at last they all reached the 
foot of the mountain, and they crossed the 
bridge over the little brook — it wasn’t so 
deep but that all who wanted to keep up 
could run right through it — and they climb- 
ed the hill beyond to the great gate in the 
wall. The gate was wide open. In they 
all went, and then through the streets right 
up to the beautiful temple at last. That 
was the way, Nellie and Charlie, that Jesus 
came to Jerusalem. Wasn’t it splendid?” 

“Yes, it was, but I do think, Ruthie, it 
would have been rather nicer if he had had 
the war-horse and the soldiers,” answered 
Charlie. 


RUTH IE AND THE SLEEPING JESUS. 105 

“ But, Charlie, he wasn’t that kind of a 
king. He might have had horses and 
chariots and armies of soldiers if he had 
wanted them — he could have had an army 
of angels ; he said so — but he couldn’t in 
that way have made people love him, don’t 
you see ? and he would rather die than not 
have people love him. Only just think, 
Charlie and Nellie! We love him dearly 
now, but we wouldn’t care hardly one sin- 
gle bit for him if he had been that kind of 
a king. Then he wouldn’t have taken little 
children in his arms and blessed them, and 
he wouldn’t have made the little girl that 
died alive again. He wouldn’t have had 
time for such things.” 

“ I suppose it was the best way, Ruthie,” 
said Nellie — “of course it was; but all the 
people that thought he was going to fight 
their enemies must have been dreadfully 
disappointed.” 

“Yes, they were disappointed, Nellie; it 
made a good many turn right against him 


io6 


RUTH IE'S STORY. 


Jesus knew it would, and he knew it would 
help to give the bad men in Jerusalem who 
hated him just the chance they wanted to 
do him harm, but he was so brave and so 



DISTANT VIEW OF BETHANY. 


good and so certain he was doing right that 
he was not troubled. He wasn’t troubled 
even though he knew how very cruel they 
were, and that in just a few days more they 
would take him and kill him ; it would be 
in five days more, for all this happened on 
Sunday, the first day of the week. 

“That evening Jesus went with his dis- 


RUTH IE AND THE SLEEPING JESUS. 107 


ciples out to a pretty little village where 
) he greatly loved to go because it was so 
quiet, and because it was the home of some 
of his very dear friends. It was a pleasant 
walk. If he went the shortest way, he would 
take a path leading right up to the top of 
the Mount of Olives. Cousin Will has 
been there ; he says the place is — oh, very 
beautiful ! Just such a place as Jesus must 
have been glad to go to after the crowd and 
noise of the city. 

“ When Cousin Will came to the top, he 
found a rock where he could sit down and 
rest and look off over the city and the great 
hills. He was looking at just the things 
Jesus used to look at. Far away on one 
side, miles and miles away, there was some- 
thing that shone like a bit of shining silver 
among the hills. It was the Dead Sea. — 
You know about that, Charlie, don’t you?” 

“Yes,” answered Charlie, “where it’s so 
low down and so hot, and where if you go 
in swimming and try to dive you can’t, be- 


io8 


RUTH IE'S STORY. 


cause the waters are as salt as anything. 
Did Cousin Will go there, Ruth?” 



THE DEAD SEA. 

“ No ; it was getting too late. The days 
were so burning hot, they told him, it 
wouldn’t be safe to try to go. But he 
was glad he saw the little glimpse of it 
and the great mountains beyond. Well, 
that was very far off from the place where 
he was resting, but looked to him as though 
all the way between there was nothing but 
hills and hills and hills — no level places at 
all ; and when he looked the other way — 
over Jerusalem — that was all mountain 


RUTHIE AND THE SLEEPING JESUS. IO9 

too; as far as he could see there were only 
mountains. He says it made him think of 
a beautiful verse in one of the Psalms. Pm 
going to learn it. — Find it, will you not, 
Nellie, please ? There in my Bible. There’s 
a mark in the place — Psalm one hundred 
and twenty-five, second verse.” 

“I’ve found it. Shall I read it?” 

“Yes, Nellie.” 

“‘As the mountains are round about 
Jerusalem, so the Lord is round about his 
people, from henceforth even for ever.’ 

“That is pretty,” continued Nellie; “we’ll 
all learn it. I’ll read it again ; then, Char- 
lie, you say it after me, and then Ruthie.” 

It took them only a few minutes to learn 
the verse perfectly. When each had re- 
peated it, Nellie said, 

“Isn’t that beautiful? Now we have 
something for our very own that we never 
had before, that nobody can take away, and 
that we can never lose.” 

“Mother likes me to play, Nellie,” said 


1 10 


RUTH IE 'S STORY. 


Ruthie, “ that every Bible verse I learn is 
a pearl which I have found, and which is 
all for my very own, and she likes me to 
find at least one pearl every day.” 

“We have all found one to-day, Ruthie.” 

“Now shall I go on with the story?” 
asked Ruth. 

“Yes, please,” replied Nellie. 

“ When Cousin Will had rested a good 
while there on the summit of the Mount 
of Olives, he went on again down the other 
side of the same path that Jesus must have 
taken. It kept winding about to find the 
easiest places, till it led at last to the village 
where Christ’s friends used to live.” 

“You haven’t told us the name of the 
village yet, Ruthie,” said Nellie. 

“ Oh no ! It is a pretty name — ‘ Beth- 
any;’ and Christ’s dear friends who lived 
there were Martha and Mary and their 
brother Lazarus. Cousin Will says it isn’t 
a pleasant village now, but that in those 
times it must have been very, very pleas* 


BETHANY 









1 12 


RUTH IE 'S STORY. 


ant. Then it had vineyards and groves of 
olive trees, and there were happy people 
with happy homes and well-kept houses. 
Well, it was there that Jesus came that first 
night from Jerusalem to rest — he must have 
been very tired — and every night after he 
was there, until Thursday. He had other 
friends there besides Lazarus and his sis- 
ters ; one of the evenings he spent with a 
friend whose name was Simon. While they 
were at supper in Simon’s house something 
very beautiful happened. The dear sister 
of Lazarus came in — the one they called 
Mary. They all knew her and loved her. 
She came toward Jesus, where he was sit- 
ting ; then they saw that she was carrying 
a pretty little box — a sort of vase — made 
of alabaster. — You know, Nellie : like that 
white vase of yours that cost so much. — 
She was carrying it carefully ; but when 
she came to Jesus, what do you suppose 
she did ? She just broke it right open — 
there was no cover, so she had to break it 


RUTH IE AND THE SLEEPING JESUS. I 1 3 

— and she poured out the ointment that 
was in it on the feet and the head of Jesus. 
Every one knew then what it was, for it 
was so fragrant — like roses or lilies or 



MARY ANOINTING JESUS. 


violets, Nellie — that the sweetness of it 
filled the whole room. 

“ It was a very precious kind of oint- 
ment — a kind that people used in those 
days something as we use flowers now 
when people we love die and have to be 


RUTIIIE ’S STORY. 


1 14 

buried. No one could think, though, that 
Jesus was going to die and that that was the 
reason Mary had brought the ointment; but 
that was the reason : Jesus said it was. He 
said, ‘ In that she hath poured this ointment 
on my body,, she did it for my burial/ 

“ How badly that must have made them 
all feel ! And it seemed so strange too. 
Even when Jesus told them, it didn’t seem 
possible. I suppose Jesus tried to comfort 
them and to explain it to them. 

“ Very soon after that — it may have been 
the very next day ; I only know that it was 
on Thursday — Jesus told them all ‘Good- 
bye ’ at Bethany for the last time ; he knew 
he would never come back to rest in beau- 
tiful Bethany any more. 

“ He and his disciples spent the whole 
of Thursday evening in a large upper 
room in Jerusalem. It was a very solemn 
time, because Jesus knew that he would 
die before another night, and he had a 
great many beautiful things to say to them 






THE UPPER ROOM 



RUTH IE'S STORY 


1 1 6 

about what would happen afterward, and 
about where he was going and what the 
disciples were to do. 

“ At last, when it was time to go away, 
they sang a hymn together, and then Jesus 
prayed a most beautiful prayer ; after that 
they went together out into the moonlight 
night. The moon was so bright, and the 
air was so still and sweet, and the little 
birds were sleeping so safely in their nests, 
it seemed as if there could not possibly be 
danger anywhere. It did not seem possi- 
ble that in such a lovely, peaceful night 
there could be bad people around seek- 
ing to harm Jesus. But there were. 

“Just outside of the city-walls, across 
the bridge and part-way up the Mount 
of Olives, was a grove of great old olive 
trees ; they called the place the ' Garden 
of Gethsemane.’ Jesus loved to go there; 
he often went there to rest and to pray. 
It was there he was going now. But oh, 
Nellie and Charlie, it was not a quiet and 


GETHSEMANE 

















8 


RUTH IE ' S STORY. 


safe place for him this time. He had been 
there only a little while before those bad 
men came to seize him. Some one had 
told them that Jesus would be there that 
night; so they had hurried, and now they 
came with a crowd of servants and sol- 
diers, and with torches and staves and 
swords, to seize Jesus, just as though they 
thought they had to fight with a lot of 
soldiers. 

“ The disciples were frightened, and 
’most all of them ran away; but Jesus 
was not afraid. He was just as quiet and 
calm as he had ever been — as he was 
when his friends used to be around him 
by the Sea of Galilee listening while he 
talked about the little birds and the flow- 
ers, and about trusting God and being 
kind and orood. 

o 

“No; he was not frightened, but all 
those men who came against him were. 
They were dreadfully afraid. When Je- 
sus asked them calmly whom they were 



JESUS SEIZED 










120 


RUTH IE'S STORY. 


seeking, and they said, ‘Jesus of Naza- 
reth,’ and he told them, ‘ I am lie,’ — why, 
they just went backward and fell to the 
ground. They were as frightened as that.” 

“ I don’t see what they were afraid of, 
Ruth, all those fellows,” said Charlie. 

“ I don’t know, Charlie. Perhaps they 
thought Jesus would be afraid, and would 
try to get away from them ; and when, in- 
stead, he stood there so quietly, they may 
have thought he had some of his friends 
hid away to help him. I think, though, it 
made them remember all at once the won- 
derful things Jesus had power to do just 
of himself.” 

“Yes, Ruthie; I guess that was it,” said 
Charlie. “They must have known how 
he had healed sick people, and even made 
dead people alive again ; if he could do 
that, of course he could make live people 
dead. I guess they were afraid he was 
going to do just that to them, when they 
saw how undisturbed he was before them.” 


RUTH IE AND THE SLEEPING JESUS. 121 

“ He would have done that, Charlie, if 
it had been the best way, but he was will- 
ing to go with them ; he told them so. 
Then they came and took him, and bound 
cords about his arms, and led him away 
back into the city and right to a house 
where all his worst enemies had met and 
were waiting for him. It was the home of 
the high priest, who was a sort of judge 
too ; they were going to try Jesus there. 
In that way they thought they could make 
it seem right to the Romans — those were 
their rulers — to let them kill Jesus. 

“Well, the trial began right away. They 
asked Jesus hard questions. They had men 
there to tell lies about him. They accused 
him of things they knew he had never said 
nor done, and at last they took him away 
to the palace to the governor, Pilate, to get 
him to say that they might put him to 
death. But, try as they would, they could 
not make Pilate believe that Jesus had done 
or said one single wrong thing. Pilate told 


22 


RUTH IE'S STORY. 


them so ; he said, ‘ Behold, I bring him forth 
to you, that ye may know that I find no 
fault in him.’ ” 

“Hurrah! hurrah! Wasn’t that fine, 
after all their trouble and lying?” ex- 
claimed Charlie. 

“ Oh, but, Charlie, it didn’t do any good ; 
for when the bad men found that Pilate — 
that was the chief ruler’s name — would not 
say that Jesus was guilty and that they 
might kill him, they just set about fright- 
ening him into doing what they wanted. 
They got a great mob together, which be- 
gan shouting and shouting and calling out 
that Pilate was no friend of the Roman 
emperor if he let Jesus go. Pilate was 
afraid there would be a fight in the streets, 
and then that they would tell the emperor 
it was all his fault, and that so he would 
lose his place as chief ruler ; so he didn’t 
know what to do. He was afraid to have 
Jesus killed when he wasn’t guilty, and he 
was afraid not to have him killed when his 







24 


RUTH IE'S STORY. 


enemies were so angry and were making 
such a tumult about it. 

“ Oh what a time they had ! Any min- 
ute they might have begun fighting, and 
then Pilate would have had to tell his sol- 
diers to fight back, and there would have 
been shrieking and crying and running, and 
ever so many would have been killed. They 
had no guns in those days, but the soldiers 
would have to run in among the people with 
their spears and swords. It would have been 
awful. And just to think, Nellie and Char- 
lie, of the dear Jesus standing there through 
it all and knowing that in a few minutes 
Pilate would let them have their will, and 
that he would be led away then to be cru- 
cified! for that is what happened. Pilate 
just gave right up to them at last ; he let 
them have their own way. He told his 
soldiers to take Jesus away and crucify 
him.” 

“What does ‘crucify’ mean, Ruthie?” 
asked Nellie. 



2 6 


RUTH IE'S STORY. 


“ It means something almost too terrible 
to think of, Nellie: it means the way they 
were going to kill the dear Jesus. I don’t 
like to tell you, it was so cruel, but perhaps 
it will make you love him more to know 
how he suffered. Nellie, they were going 
to make a great wooden cross and set it 
in the ground, and then nail Jesus to it till 
he died. It makes me cry to think of it 
and to tell about it.” 

The children sat very quietly for a few 
minutes after that ; then Ruth went on : 

“That was exactly what they did, Nellie 
and Charlie. They led Jesus away; and 
when the cross was ready, they told him 
he must carry it. He carried it a little way, 
but it was so heavy, and he was so tired, 
soon he could not carry it any farther. He 
would have fallen with it, but they took it 
from him and made a man named Simon 
carry it for him, or help him carry it. 

“ By that time a very great crowd was 
following them. They walked on through 


RUTH IE AND THE SLEEPING JESUS. 1 27 

the streets. They came to one of the great 
gates ; that was open for them to pass. 
Then they were beyond the walls of the 
city. A little farther, and they came to a 
place called ‘ Calvary.’ They set the cross 
in the ground, and there, Nellie and Char- 
lie, they crucified him. The dear Jesus 
whom we talked about as a baby in Beth- 
lehem they crucified. When it was even- 
ing, he fell asleep — he died — there on the 
cross.” 

Presently Nellie asked softly, 

“Is that the end, Ruthie dear?” 

“ No, but it is the end of the sad part, Nel- 
lie. Mother says that all that comes after 
is as wonderful and bright and glad as this 
part is sorrowful. Next time I will have a 
happy part to tell you about. Nellie, have 
you noticed anything in the room to-day 
that you never saw here before ? ’ 

“Yes,” answered Nellie; “that little cross 
hanging in the corner by your books, oppo- 
site the picture of Jesus and the little chil- 


128 


RUTH IE'S STORY. 


dren. I know now what it means. Isn’t 
it pretty ? And this is just the time to have 
it. Where did you get it ? It’s made all 
of moss, isn’t it?” 

“Yes; Cousin Will gave it to me only 
this morning,” said Ruthie, “and he made 
these verses to go with it : 

“ ‘ Upon my wall 
A tiny cross 
Of soft wood-moss — 

And that is all. 

“ ‘ And yet that cross 
Of woodland moss, 

It speaketh well to me 
Of hope and holy charity, 

Of Jesus, too — 

Of Jesus, who 
For me 

Endured great pain 
In dark Gethsemane, 

And for my gain 
A sacrifice could be 
Upon that other cross— 

The cruel tree 
Of Calvary.’ ” 


RUTH IE AND THE SLEETING JESUS. 1 29 

“ Now, Nellie,” continued Ruth, “ do you 
see all the fog and the rain out of the win- 
dow, and yet do you expect to go home 
to-night? I want you just to make up 
your mind to stay here till it clears away, 
if it’s a week.” 

I would be glad enough to stay, Ruthie,” 
said Nellie, “ but I don’t know as I ought to 
— unless it rains harder still. If it does, 
and if your mother thinks it’s best, I will 
stay. I know then my mother would be 
willing, and Charlie can tell her about it.” 

It did rain harder and harder. It thun- 
dered and lightened ; it poured. There 
was no doubt now but that it was best for 
Nellie to stay. Charlie cared nothing for 
the storm ; he would enjoy being out in it. 
He stayed until nearly dark, then wrapped 
himself up for the “ voyage ” home. 

“I shall play I’m Neptune at sea,” he 
said. “ Good-bye, Ruthie.” 

“ Good-bye. Tell your mother I’m real 
glad it rained hard enough to keep Nellie’” 


30 


RUTH IE'S STORY. 


“ I will. — Good-bye, Nellie. Haven’t you 
anything to send mother?” 

“Yes, brother dear; take her this kiss. 
Good-night.” 

Then away Charlie went whistling. 



CHAPTER V. 


RUTH IE AND THE RISEN JESUS. 

H, mother, mother, do come to the 



door! Was there ever, ever any- 
thing prettier than this?” 

The mother thought there never was as 
she came and saw her sweet girl Ruthie 
standing on the carriage-block with her 
laughing face and her flying curls, while 
all about, her * and over her were falling 
great fairy-flakes of snow. It was not 
cold, and it was the last of the snowfall. 
Already in the east the clouds had broken, 
and a blaze of sunlight was sparkling 
through — in chase, it seemed to Ruthie, of 
the truant flakes. 

Besides the snowflakes in the air, others 
were clinging everywhere. It was a beau- 


132 


RUTH IE 'S STORY. 


tiful white world she was standing in. The 
mother brought a white shawl and wrapped 
it about her, kissed her and went back 
to her work. Ruthie, standing there and 
watching the flakes drifting and dancing 
and sparkling down from the clouds, kept 
thinking of some verses of Cousin Will’s : 


‘ Gently the snowflakes are falling, 

A pure and a beautiful band, 

Floating in numberless millions 
From some far-away spirit-land. 

“ Surely the flakes must be fairies ; 

We think they are nothing but snow, 

Yet they are dancing the dances 
Of fairyland, down here below. 

“ Dwelling for ever in gladness, 

In palaces flashing with light, 

Seeing the earth clothed in brownness, 

They thought they would robe it in white. 

“ Changing their forms as by magic, 

They leaped from their bright abode ; 
Caught by the clues of the wild wind, 

On elfin cars downward they rode.” 





THE SNOW-SONG, 




134 


RUTH IE 'S STORY. 


There were more verses, but those kept 
saying themselves over and over in her 
mind, until, whenever a specially pretty 
flake came floating along to rest for a mo- 
ment on her wraps, it really seemed almost 
as though a fairy were there. 

Then when she saw down the road a 
party of little boys snowballing each other 
under the trees, it was another bit of verse 
that began singing itself to her : 

“ Laden like ships are the pine-tufts 
With toppling cargoes of snow, 

Ready to snowball the children 
Snowballing each other below. 
***** 

"Now a shimmer of laughing sunlight 

Steals down through a rift in the gray : 

It catches the truant snow-elves, 

And spirits them swiftly away.” 


Suddenly every thought of snow-fairies 
and verses and sunlight vanishes, for what 
is that she hears ? Surely it is the jingle of 
sleigh-bells. Yes, and there they come, at 



SNOWBALLING 









136 RUTH IE'S STORY. 

the bend of the road, away beyond the 
snowballing children. Oh, isn’t it splen- 
did ? How fast they go ! They come swift- 
ly nearer. Suddenly Ruthie exclaims, 
“Why, I do believe it is Cousin Will with 
his blacks ! Yes, it is; and he has Cousin 
Annie and Charlie and Nellie with him ; 
and it’s the double sleigh, and of course 
they’re coming for me.” 

All of Ruthie’s thought proved entirely 
true. In about a minute Will reined his 
horses by the carriage- block. 

“Good-morning, Miss — what? Miss 
Snowflake Ruthie — wrapped all in white. 
I can’t take you dancing through the air, 
but if a ride will do, and you’ll promise 
not to melt away in the sunlight, climb in. 
— Good-morning, auntie.” 

“ Good-morning, Will. Is Ruthie wrap- 
ped warmly enough for a ride?” 

“Yes, or if not we have plenty of robes. 
— Pull them about you, Ruthie. There ! 
— We’ll be gone only a few minutes, aunt- 



A MERRY SLEIGHR1DE. 



138 


RUTH IE'S STORY. 


ie ; and I’ll drop the whole cargo here, 
Ruthie and all, on my way back, if the 
cargo doesn’t object. Good-bye.” 

“ Good-bye.” 

And away they went. 

It seemed to the children as if those 
black horses almost flew over the even 
meadow-road. Sooner than the mother 
expected they were at the door again. 
Cheeks and ears were tingling and eyes 
sparkling and lips smiling as the “cargo” 
unloaded. 

Cousin Will then drove off home. It was 
too pleasant to go in doors, and Ruthie 
said, 

“ W e’ll find a warm place on the piazza ; 
but come first with me to the crocus-bed, 
Nellie. The last time I looked the flowers 
were almost out. 1 hope the snow hasn’t 
hurt them.” 

The bed lay sheltered in a corner of 
the wall. As they came to it Ruthie ex- 
claimed, 


RUTHIE AND THE RISEN JESUS. 1 39 

“Oh, Nellie, isn’t that beautiful? Just 
see! Snow and cold all around, and yet 
there are the dear little crocuses and 
snowdrops blossoming right up through 
it all ! Oh, I don’t understand how the 
flowers can live like this again after they 
are dead in the fall and through the freez- 
ing cold winter. But they do. Isn’t it 
wonderful ?” 

“ It’s wonderful and it’s beautiful, Ruthie,” 
answered Nellie. 

“ Now come to the piazza, and I will tell 
you more of the Jesus story. This time it 
will be about the risen Jesus, for he rose 
from the dead as wonderfully, Nellie, as 
the flowers rise — more wonderfully.” 

Charlie was waiting for them on the 
piazza. He wanted to stay, he said, if he 
could busy himself with some whittling he 
had on hand. 

“ Can I whittle on the piazza, Ruthie ?” 

“Yes, if you spread down a paper.” 

They found their sunny corner. Charlie 


140 


RUTH IE 'S STORY. 


brought low ottomans for the girls. As 
usual, for himself he preferred the floor. 

“ Now, Charlie, suppose you were a sol- 
dier and were told to watch at night in a 
garden where there was a sort of cave cut 
in the rock, with a great rolling stone in 
front of it for a door. Then while you 
were watching suppose all at once there 
was a great jarring and crashing, like an 
earthquake, and a shining angel came and 
rolled away the stone door and sat down on 
it. What would you do, Charlie? Would 
you be frightened?” 

“ I suppose the earthquake would fright- 
en me,” said Charlie, “ but unless I was a 
bad soldier I don’t believe I would be 
afraid of the angel.” 

“ I think it was just that way in the things 
I am going to tell you about,” said Ruthie. 
“ The bad people were troubled and fright- 
ened by them, and the good people were 
made, oh so glad and thankful ! — just as 
glad as they were sorry before. When 


RUTH IE AND THE RISEN JESUS. 141 

the dear Jesus had died, as I told you, on 
the cross, the people who had loved him 
best took his body down and carried it 
away to bury it. The grave wasn’t like 
our graves. It was a place like that I was 
asking you about, Charlie — a cave in a gar- 
den, with a great stone for a door. This 
was a new cave that a man named Joseph 
had made in the rock in his own garden. 
It was a quiet, beautiful place. 

“There they laid away the body of Je- 
sus ; and they closed the cave with the 
great stone door, and they made every- 
thing as strong and safe as possible ; and 
then, to make it all safer still, some Ro- 
man soldiers were sent to keep guard. 

“Nothing happened the first night, and 
nothing happened all the next day — that 
was Saturday — but Saturday night! I 
don’t wonder, Charlie, that the soldiers 
were frightened, for then Jesus rose from 
the dead. 

“ He had died on the cross and been 


142 


RUTH IE ' S STORY. 


buried in the cave, and now he was alive 
again — -just as really alive as though he 
had been only asleep instead of dead for 
three days — as really alive as the beauti- 
ful crocus-flowers are now after their win- 



JESUS COMING FROM THE TOMB. 


ter burial. I don’t know whether the sol- 
diers saw him come out of the cave or not ; 
I don’t suppose they did. But they heard 
the noise like an earthquake, and they saw 


RUTH IE AND THE RISEN JESUS. 1 43 

the angel, and they knew the tomb that 
they had been set to guard was now wide 
open. They just fainted away with fright, 
Charlie. They were like dead men. 

“ When they came to themselves, they 
hurried and went and told Jesus’ enemies 
what had happened. Then those wicked 
enemies were frightened too, for they 
thought that now every one would believe 
in Jesus, and would turn against them as 
wicked and selfish men.” 

“ They were dreadful, Ruthie,” said Char- 
lie. “ No wonder if all the people hated 
them. I should think they would hate 
them.” 

“ Or else would be sorry for them, Char- 
lie,” answered Ruthie, “ because they were 
so bad. I feel more that way. — Don’t you, 
Nellie?” 

“Sometimes I do,” said Nellie. “I sup- 
pose it is the way we ought to feel toward 
all bad people.” 

“ But we don’t if we ought to,” said Char- 


144 


RUTH IE 'S STORY. 


lie; “anyway, I don’t. They make me feel 
as puckered as pickles. — Let’s not talk 
about them, Ruthie.” 

“Well, we will not, Charlie: this is the 
last of them in the whole story.” 

“Who do you suppose were the very 
first of all Jesus’ friends to find out what 
had happened? They were some women. 
One of them was Mary Magdalene, whom 
Christ had made well once when she was 
very, very sick. Mary and the others had 
been feeling, oh, so sorry and troubled, be- 
cause Christ had died. Now it was the 
third day since he had been buried : it was 
our Sunday. They thought they would 
take some spices and sweet ointments and 
go to the grave and anoint his body. They 
started very early in the morning, before it 
was light. They knew the way, and they 
were not afraid. They came near the gar- 
den. Then all at once they remembered 
something they had not once thought of 
before. How ever were they going to 


RUTH IE AND THE RISEN JESUS . 1 45 

open that great stone door? When they 
thought of that, they might have turned 
back, but they didn’t; they kept on, and 
they must have been glad afterward that 
they did. Perhaps they decided they would 
sit down by the cave and wait there, think- 
ing about Jesus, until some one came who 
could open it for them. 

“ But when they reached the garden, 
oh how astonished they must have been ! 
The soldiers were gone ! The cave-door 
was wide open ! And when they looked 
in, there on the right side, was an angel, 
sitting clothed in a long white robe ! Per- 
haps it was the same angel the soldiers had 
seen, only he was not so terrible to the 
women as he had seemed to them. 

“ The angel knew what they had come 
for, and he spoke very gently to them. 
This is what he said : ‘ I know that ye seek 
Jesus which was crucified, He is not here, 
for he is risen. Behold the place where 
they laid him.’ Then the angel said they 


46 


RUTH IE'S STORY 


were to go quickly and tell the good news 
to the other disciples. 

“ They obeyed. They hurried away. 
But I don’t think Mary Magdalene could 



THE STONE ROLLED AWAY. 


have been with the others all the time, 
because of something that happened to 
her a little later. None of them had seen 
Jesus yet, and some of them seem to have 
thought that all the angel meant was that 


RUTHIE AND THE RISEN JESUS. 


his body was taken away and put in an- 
other place. 

“ But now, while they were hurrying 
along, suddenly Jesus met them and spoke 
to them. It all seemed so wonderful and 



JESUS’ APPEARANCE TO THE WOMEN. 


strange that they just kneeled down at his 
feet and worshiped him. But in a few 
minutes Jesus told them, as the angel had, 
to go on and find the disciples. 

“ When at last the disciples were found, 


148 RUTHIE’S STORY. 

they could hardly believe what the women 
said. It all seemed like an idle story to 
them. They had forgotten that it was just 
what Jesus, before he died, had told them 
would happen — that he would rise on the 
third day. 

“Well, Peter and John thought the best 
way would be for them to go just as fast 
as they could to Joseph’s garden and see 
about it for themselves. John was the 
disciple whom Jesus loved most of all. I 
don’t wonder he wanted to go. And Pe- 
ter ? Perhaps one reason why he wanted 
to go was because he was ashamed of 
what he had done the night Christ was 
tried in the house of Caiaphas. If only 
he could see Jesus alive again and show 
him how brave and true he meant now 
always to be !” 

“What was it he had done, Ruthie?” 

“ I will tell you, though I must go back a 
little way in the story to do it. That night 
when they took Jesus from the garden of 


PETER’S DENIAI 


















50 


RUTH IE'S STORY. 


Gethsemane, Peter was dreadfully fright- 
ened. He must have been, to do what he 
did. I suppose he was afraid they would 
kill him, just as they were going to kill 
Jesus. Any way, he told some of the peo- 
ple around him — three times he told them ; 
just think of it ! — that he was not a dis- 
ciple of Christ, and that he did not even 
know him ! And only a little while before 
he had really thought he would be willing 
to die for him: he had said so. But Jesus 
had told him that, instead of being willing 
to die for him, before morning he would 
have denied him three times. Peter didn’t 
think it could possibly be so. But now he 
had done it, as Jesus had said he would. 
And what do you suppose it was that made 
Peter remember? It was a cock crowing, 
as Jesus had said — that and because just 
then Jesus looked at him lovingly and 
sorrowfully. 

“Then Peter was so sorry he just went 
out and cried and cried. It seemed as 


RUTH IE AND THE RISEN JESUS. 1 5 I 

though he would never have a chance to 
ask Jesus to forgive him, for almost right 
away they led Jesus out to be tried again 
and crucified. But now if what the woman 
said was true Jesus was alive! No wonder 
that he and John just ran to the garden. 
John reached it first; but when he saw the 
tomb wide open, as Mary had said, he was 
afraid, for a minute, to go in. Peter came 
running up and rushed past him right into 
the tomb, he was so eager. Then they 
found it was all true : it was all as the 
woman had told them.” 

“ Didn’t they see Jesus anywhere, Ruth- 
ie ?” asked Nellie. 

“Not yet. None but the women had 
seen him. But about that time — I don’t 
know exactly when it was — Mary Magda- 
lene saw him (one of the Gospels says 
he appeared first to Mary Magdalene) : 
she was in the garden too. It was a 
little dark still, so she could not make 
out people very well. She heard some 


152 


RUTH IE'S STORY. 


one behind her, and turned around. She 
thought it was the gardener, and wondered 
if he wouldn’t know something about Jesus, 
whether he was really alive or had only 
been stolen away and hid somewhere. So 
she asked the man about it. But he didn’t 
answer. — Nellie, it wasn’t the gardener at 
all: it was Jesus! He just spoke to her. 
‘ Mary !’ Oh how quickly she knew him 
and turned to him then ! But she could 
hardly speak, she was so glad and sur- 
prised. She just said, ‘Master!’ He 
talked with her a little while, and then 
sent her away to tell the disciples.” 

“Why, Ruthie, I should think the dis- 
ciples wouldn’t have known what to do 
for gladness,” said Nellie. “ Then they 
had been feeling so dreadfully too.” 

“They were as glad as glad could be. 
They wouldn’t have known what to do, 
only Jesus had sent word to them by the 
women to go quietly away into Galilee — 
away from the bad men in Jerusalem — 


RUTH IE AND THE RISEN JESUS. 1 53 

saying he would follow them and would 
see them there. But they were not to 
go away at once. They were to wait a few 
days in Jerusalem. Then that very same 



ON THE WAY TO EMMAUS. 


afternoon something more happened. Two 
of the disciples lived at Emmaus, or, if they 
didn’t live there all the time, they were 
going down there that day. It was a long 
walk of seven miles. They started and 
walked away up and down the beautiful 
hills, and they talked and talked, and it 



154 


RUT HIE ’£ STORY. 


was all about what had been happening 
in the last few days. Then Jesus joined 
them. They didn’t know him at first. I 
don’t see why. Perhaps because it was 
growing dark, or perhaps they hardly look- 
ed at him closely, they were so interested 
in their talk ; and, besides, very likely he 
didn’t look just exactly the same as he 
used to look. He walked along with them, 
and asked them what they were talking so 
earnestly about. They told him. Then 
he began to explain things to them, and, 
though they wondered at his being so wise, 
still they didn’t for one minute think it could 
be Jesus. 

“ By and by they came to Emmaus. It 
was late by that time, so they asked him to 
stay with them instead of going on farther 
all alone in the dark night. He stopped 
with them. When supper was ready, they 
all sat down to eat, and they wanted their 
guest to ask the blessing. Then Jesus took 
the bread, just as he had done many times 


RUTH IE AND THE RISEN JESUS. 1 55 

with them before, and blessed it Then 
they knew him.” 

“Wasn’t that a beautiful way for him to 
show them who he was ?” asked Charlie. 

“Yes, indeed, it was,” said Ruthie. “That 
was all. He did not want to say any- 
thing more to them then. He vanished 
out of their sight. What do you think, 
Nellie and Charlie? Those two men, late 
as it was and tired as they must have been, 
just put on their things and went right 
back to Jerusalem to tell the disciples that 
they too, as well as the women, had cer- 
tainly seen Jesus alive. 

“They reached Jerusalem, and came to 
the room where the disciples were. But 
the door was closed. That was because 
the disciples were afraid the bad men go- 
ing by might hear them and see them ; but 
I don’t think the door was locked; or, if it 
was, there was some one there to open it 
for them, for they got in very easily. When 
they entered they shut the door again be- 


56 


RUTH IE 'S STORY. 


hind them. Then they began telling the 
disciples all about what had happened that 
afternoon on their way to Emmaus. 

“ It was very hard for the disciples who 
had not seen Jesus to believe that it could 
possibly be true that He who had been cru- 
cified was really alive again. Before Christ 
died he had told them about it, but it was 
in such a way that they did not understand 
him at the time, and they had hardly re- 
membered it since. 

“ Some of them thought that only a spirit, 
a ghost, had been seen. But now, just in a 
few minutes, they were to know it was not 
that. It was all to be made so very plain 
that they could not help knowing that, really 
and truly, their dear Jesus was risen and 
was living again among them ; for sudden- 
ly — what do you think, Nellie? — right there 
in the midst of them where they were talk- 
ing, was Jesus ! He spoke kindly to them. 
He told them not to be afraid — that he 
wasn’t a ghost: they could touch him; 


RUTH IE AND THE RISEN JESUS. 1 57 

they could see his hands and his feet with 
the marks on them where he had been 
nailed to the cross. 

“ Then, at last, they knew it was truly 
their own Jesus who had come back to 
them from the tomb to teach them a little 
while longer, and to tell them what they were 
to do when the time came for him really to 
leave them and go away to stay in heaven. 

“ He remained with them only a little 
time, and they seldom saw him afterward 
until he had followed them to Galilee. 
There he found them again, fishing on the 
Lake of Gennesaret. I will tell you another 
time what happened afterward. 

“But wasn’t it all wonderful, Nellie? I 
don’t believe that ever again in all their 
lives the diseiples were as sad and trou- 
bled as they had been before. I don’t 
believe that even dying would ever again 
seem quite as it seemed before.” 

“Ruthie, did you say all that happened 
on Sunday?” asked Charlie. 


i 5 8 


RUTHIE'S STORY. 


“Yes, Charlie,” replied Ruthie. 

“Then I suppose that is the reason,” said 
Charlie, “ why many good Christian peo- 
ple call Sunday the ‘ Lord’s Day,’ and why 
everybody that we know tries to make it 
seem the very happiest day of the whole 
week for us young folks. Don’t you think 
it’s the nicest day of all, Ruthie ? Nellie and 
I do.” 

“Yes, indeed, I think so,” answered Ruth. 
“It certainly is in our home the nicest from 
morning till night, and which part of it is 
nicest I don’t know. We have Bible-sto- 
ries, and we sing, and we go to church and 
to Sunday-school, and we have lovely pict- 
ures to look at, and books to read and talk 
about, and we have the prettiest Sunday 
clothes, and the prettiest Sunday dishes 
for the table ; and if there are any flowers 
blooming, we always have them on the table 
by us. The flowers are our pretty Sunday 
visitors, mother says. I’m going to pick 
some of the crocuses and snowdrops for 


RUTH IE AND THE RISEN JESUS. 1 59 

next Sunday. I’ll send some to you, Nel- 
lie, or bring them.” 

“That will be very nice, Ruthie dear,” 
answered Nellie. “Then when I look at 
them I’ll think how we saw the dear little 
things come pushing up through the snow 
out of their earth-graves, to open their eyes 
and smile at us and make us glad ; and 
that will make me think again of what you 
have been telling us, Ruthie, about Jesus 
rising out of the tomb in Joseph’s garden 
and coming to make his disciples glad, and 
us glad too.” 

“ I have some pretty verses, Nellie,” said 
Ruth, “ about the snowflakes and the buried 
flowers, and some about Jesus. Shall I say 
them to you ?” 

“Yes, Ruthie,” Nellie replied, “and then 
it will be time for us to go.” 

“These are about the snow and the 
flowers : 

" « Snowflakes, drift lightly ; your countless feet 

Are treading where crocus and snowdrop sleep ; 


RUTH IE'S STORY. 


Waken them not in their earth-beds deep — 

Oh, waken them not from their slumber sweet. 

4 Over them fold your garments white — 

Garments of beauty, woven by night 
With web and with woof of frozen light ; 

Cover them safe from the storm-king’s might. 

4 While they are sleeping forget not their worth ; 
Then when the winds, that are lovers of flowers, 
Have changed your shapes by their magical powers 
And banished you far from the realms of earth, 

4 Back from the clouds you can come in showers, 
Back in the shining spring-time hours, 

Glad when you find in blossoming bowers, 
Smiling to greet you, the risen flowers.’ 


“Then here are some lines about Jesus: 

4 4 Oh, dark was the tomb where Jesus lay 
All day, all day ; 

And the flowers hung pale and the birds sang low 
Sang sad and low. 

The great moon rose to its night-time place, 

But it veiled its face ; 

It veiled its glory as though in dread, 

For Christ was dead. 


RUTH IE AND THE RISEN JESUS. l6l 


“ * Two nights and a day there was only gloom 
Round Joseph’s quiet garden-tomb ; 

But before the end of the second night, 

Like a gleam of light 

An angel passed. Then an earthquake shock 
Unbound the lock, 

And rolled from its place the great door-rock. 

Oh joy, oh joy ! 

“ 4 Let all of the birds their songs employ ; 

Let the blossoming flowers 
Be happy again in their fragrant bowers ! 

Rejoice ! rejoice ! 

For, lo ! at the sound of the earthquake voice 
The Lord arose ! 

Rejoice ! rejoice ! With none to oppose 
Of all his foes, 

Unharmed and a victor, he came from the gloom — 
From the terrible gloom of that garden-tomb. 

Oh, with heart and with voice 
Let the whole round earth rejoice, rejoice.’ 

“That is all. Isn’t it pretty, Nellie?” 
asked Ruth. 

“Yes, very pretty,” said Nellie, “and it 
makes me glad, because there is so much 
gladness in it at the. last. Thank you, 


RUTH IE'S STORY. 


1 62 

Ruthie dear. — Now, Charlie, we must go. 
Why, dear boy, you needn’t have taken 
the trouble to spread down the paper. — 
Do you see, Ruthie ? He hasn’t made one 
single whittling. ” 

“Well, that was Ruthie’s fault, if it was 
anybody’s,” said Charlie. “ She made the 
story so nice I forgot to whittle. — When 
will you tell the rest, Ruthie? Is there 
much more of it?” 

“ Not much more,” answered Ruthie — : 
“ only the good-bye part. Come again as 
soon as you can.” 

Out into the sunshine, and tracking 
across what was left of the light snow, 
went Nellie and Charlie. At the curve 
of the road they looked back. There was 
Ruthie watching them still. They waved 
another good-bye to her. It was the last 
bright glimpse they had of the dear girl 
for many a long day. 


CHAPTER VI. 

RUTH IE AND JESUS NOW. 

M OTHER dear,” said Ruthie as she 
sat with her mother on the pleas- 
ant porch reading a bright children’s paper, 
“ I am so much better to-day, don’t you 
think I might have Nellie come over for a 
little while? It seems such a long, long 
time since I have seen her. Just think, 
mother ! not once since that bright, bright 
day when the pretty crocuses blossomed 
up through the snow ; and now, all the 
crocuses are asleep again, it’s the roses’ 
turn to wake up and be happy and to 
make us happy. If Nellie comes now, I 
know it will be with her hands full of 
white roses and red roses and roses of all 
the colors that roses grow. What a beau- 

163 


164 


RUTHIE ' S STORY. 


tiful time it would have been, mother, for 
me to have gone away to heaven if I had 
died instead of getting well !” 

“Yes, Ruthie, a beautiful time,” answered 
her mother; “and it would have been going 
from one beautiful world to another more 
beautiful ; but how lonesome the crocuses 
when they come, and the roses, and we all, 
would have been without you, Ruthie !” 

“ I would have been just as lonesome for 
you ; only it wouldn’t have been nearly as 
hard for me. You know I would have had 
so many new and beautiful things to see 
and to think about there.” 

“You would have been happy there, 
Ruth, but we are very thankful that, in- 
stead of taking you away to be happy in 
the heavenly home, God is letting you stay 
to make us glad in this home.” 

“ But don’t you think, mother dear, if I had 
died we would all have been just as glad 
then? only we would have wanted so 
dreadfully much to see each other. If 



ruthie and 


HER MOTHER. 






66 


RUTH IE'S STORY. 


Nellie comes, I’m going to tell her why 
some things seemed so pleasant when I 
was thinking about dying and going to 
heaven.” 

“ She can come, Ruthie,” said her mother : 
“ I will send for her by and by ; but you had 
better lie down and rest a while now. You 
are not as well and strong yet as you used 
to be.” 

It was not Nellie alone who came that 
afternoon to see Ruthie. Ruthie was wait- 
ing out on the piazza, sitting there in the 
easy-chair and in the sunshine. She was 
looking pale still, for, though it was the 
month of roses of every kind, no roses 
had blossomed yet in her cheeks. 

All at once far down the street she saw 
coming a dozen and more of the boys and 
girls — Nellie and Charlie and all the rest. 
As they came nearer and nearer Ruthie 
could see that they all carried small baskets 
in their hands. Soon they were at the gate, 
and then in a minute they all were swarm 


RUTH IE AND JESUS NOW. 1 67 

ing like happy bees up the steps to where 
she sat. Oh, it was as happy and bright a 
buzzing swarm as if it was really made up 
of a million buzzing bees. Weren’t they 
glad to see each other? Then in a minute 
again, all together, they uncovered their 
baskets and out came (what do you think ?) 
handfuls after handfuls of most beautiful 
roses, and down they threw them in show r - 
ers, shower after shower, all over and 
around Ruthie — white roses and red and 
pink and yellow, all colors that roses know — 
showers of them over her head and hands 
and feet until she was crowned and scep- 
tred and robed and shod with them. By 
that time the roses in her cheeks were as 
bright as the roses in the cheeks of the 
laughing boys and girls around her. 

That was the children’s welcome to Ruthie 
back into the happy realm of health. They 
had come only for that. In a few minutes 
all were gone, excepting Nellie and Charlie. 
Then they gathered up the ‘‘showers” 


1 68 


RUTHIE' S STORY. 


whose raindrops had been roses and made 
them into great bouquets. They brought 
a light table from the parlor, and on that 
they placed the flowers in water, within 
sight and reach of Ruth. 

“ How pretty and how kind of them that 
was!” said Ruth. “What a nice ‘Good- 
bye ’ that would be if I were never to see 
any of them again !” 

“ But, Ruthie, you don’t expect not to 
see them again? You are almost as well 
now as ever,” said Charlie. 

“Yes, Charlie, I feel just about as well as 
ever I was, and I am very happy and very 
thankful ; but then I’ve been so near going 
away I can’t help thinking about it some- 
times now,” answered Ruth. 

“I shouldn’t think you would want to 
say or think one single thing about it, 
Ruthie,” replied Charlie. “Wasn’t it hard 
to have to think about it when you were 
sick ?” 

“ Why, no,” Ruthie answered ; “ it wasn’t 


RUTH IE AND JESUS NOW. 1 69 

that way at all. Of course it was hard on 
some accounts, and sometimes I was a lit- 
tle afraid. But most of the time I wasn’t 
afraid, not one bit. Do you know, Nellie 
and Charlie, I do believe that what made 
me feel so most of all were our talks about 
Jesus — those and the part of the story that 
I haven’t told you yet? You know we 
talked nothing about what happened to 
Jesus and his disciples after they left Jeru- 
salem and came again to Galilee.” 

“I remember,” said Nellie, “that was 
the last. Tell the rest now, Ruthie, if it 
will not make you too tired.” 

“I’m not much tired,” she answered, 
“ and I want to tell you ; for what happened 
afterward was just splendid. It was some- 
thing that makes Jesus seem as real to us 
now as he was to the disciples then. 

“ You remember how glad the disciples 
were in Jerusalem when Christ came back 
to them alive after he rose from the tomb. 
Then I told you that he followed them into 


170 RUTH IE'S STORY. 

Galilee, where almost everybody knew him 
and loved him. But he did not stay in Gal- 
ilee a very long time ; only long enough for 
the people to know that he was really alive. 
Soon he went back to Jerusalem. From 
there one beautiful day (it was about 
forty days after he rose from the dead) he 
walked with his disciples out to the Mount 
of Olives, to a place not very far away 
from Bethany, where you know Lazarus 
and Mary and Martha lived. I don’t know 
what time of day it was : in the evening, I 
think, toward sundown, when everything 
was quiet and still and beautiful. I think 
there was one white cloud floating in the 
sky like a ship, and that it came floating 
softly, softly along, nearer and nearer, 
lower and lower, until it came at last and 
stood right over the place where the dear 
Jesus was. I wonder if it made the dis- 
ciples think about the star that shone above 
the place where he was born in Bethlehem ? 

“Jesus knew what would happen in only 


RUTHIE AND JESUS NOW. 171 

a few minutes more, but the others did not 
know. How strange it must have seemed 
to him to think back over all the time since 
he came as a little baby-boy to earth, and 
to know that now it was almost ended ! 
Well, Jesus talked with them a while longer. 
Oh, he said some very beautiful things to 
them. One thing, just at the last, was, ‘ Lo, 
I am with you alway, even unto the end of 
the world and then — ” 

“ Did he die, Ruth?” asked Nellie. 

“ No. — Then he reached out his hands 
over his disciples and blessed them ; and 
even while he was blessing them he van- 
ished away. The cloud hid him. He was 
received out of their sight into heaven. 

“Wasn’t it wonderful, Nellie, and beau- 
ful ? Then when all the disciples were gaz- 
ing up into the sky, and hardly knowing 
whether to be glad or sorry, suddenly two 
beautiful angels were standing there by 
them, and one of the angels told them that 
some time Christ would come back again 


172 


RUTH IE 'S STORY. 



to earth, just as they had seen him go, in 
clouds and with great glory. 

“That is the end, Nellie, of the story 


THE ASCENSION. 

of that part of Christ’s life — his life on 
earth — all the way from the time when he 
was a wee sweet baby under the stars in 




RUTH IE AND JESUS NOW. 1 73 

the manger at Bethlehem until he went 
away to heaven again from the Mount of 
Olives. 

“Isn’t it a dear, sweet story? But 
then, you know, that is the end only 
of the story of the earthly life. There is 
more that is just as sweet. It is about Je- 
sus now , for you know, Nellie, he is as 
really alive now as he ever was ; only now, 
instead of living on earth, he is living in 
heaven.” 

“ But no persons know much about him 
now, do they, Ruthie?” asked Nellie. 
“Any way, it seems as though he was so 
very, very far off — far away in heaven, 
miles and miles and miles away, as far as 
the stars.” 

“Oh, but, Nellie,” Ruth replied, “it 
doesn’t seem one bit that way to me. I 
wouldn’t wonder if a part of heaven was 
all about us, wherever good people or an- 
gels are — ever so much nearer than Pales- 
tine is, where Christ lived on earth ; and 


174 


R UTII1E ’ S STORY. 


even if heaven is away off in some beauti 
ful star, it could not take any time hardly 
for Christ to come to where we live or for 
us when we die to go to where he is. 

“I don’t believe, Nellie, that Christ is so 
far away any time from us as he was from 
Mary and Martha in the Bethany home 
when he was only two miles away in Jeru- 
salem. Why, I think of Jesus now almost 
the same as I suppose those little children 
he blessed on earth would have thought of 
him if they had been blind. They would 
have known he was close by them ; only 
they couldn’t see him. When I was so 
sick, I thought that just in a little while I 
wouldn’t be blind that way any longer, but 
that all at once I would see Jesus and the 
angels and heaven, and, oh, ever so many 
things — everything that is nicest.” 

“ But how do you know it is that way, 
Ruthie?” asked Nellie. 

“ Why, if Christ loved little children like 
us on earth,” said Ruthie, “of course he 


RUTHIE AND JESUS NOW. 1 75 

will take care of us now and when we die 
and for ever. He said so. He said he 
was going away to prepare a place for us, 
that where he is there we might be also. 
I don’t know that we will see him all in a 
minute when we die, but I think we will. 
I think he will want to see us, and I know 
I shall want to see him ; but even if I had 
to wait a long, long while, it wouldn’t be any 
matter; the time would not seem long.” 

“Now, Ruthie and Nellie, I’m going to 
tell you something,” said Charlie. “It’s so, 
and I can’t help it, and I’m going to say it. 
— I have a kind of a feeling that I might 
not be happy all the time in heaven. I’m 
afraid I’d get tired doing nothing much, 
you know; I’d want to get out Saturday 
afternoons and romp, you know.” 

“ Oh, you queer boy !” replied Ruthie. 
“What are you thinking of? Don’t you 
suppose you can play in heaven as much 
as you like? You don’t mean you want 
ever to be bad, do you?” 


176 


ruthie’s story. 


“ No, indeed,” answered Charlie. “ I 
don’t mean any such thing as that, Ruthie. 
I want to be good, and I want to be where 
Jesus is. I think he was just splendid 
always. But I don’t want to be stiff all the 
time, and I don’t want to be still all the 
time, and I don’t want to be doing nothing 
all the time. I want to have fun ; I want to 
work, and I want to play.” 

“ But, Charlie, it is not that way at all. 
What makes you have such a strange idea 
of heaven ? Why, don’t you know you can 
do every single thing you want to there, 
excepting to be bad, and you don’t want to 
be bad.” 

“ Now, can 1 play ball there and top and 
kite ? and do you girls expect to have your 
dolls and flowers there where Jesus is?” 

“Why, Charlie dear, of course if we want 
to I suppose we can play with dolls and 
balls and kites ; only I don’t know as we’ll 
want to play with those things there. I 
don’t much think we shall.” 


RUTHIE AND JESUS NOW. 1 77 

“ But why do you think we shall not want 
to do so, Ruthie ?” 

“ Because I think there will be something 
ever so much nicer than anything we ever 
saw or heard or thought of here. There 
will be plenty of work and of study that we 
will love, with the play.” 

“I hope there’ll be birds there, Ruthie, 
and flowers, don’t you?” asked Nellie. 

“Yes, Nellie, and it does seem as though 
the most beautiful singing birds and the 
brightest flowers would be there — if for no 
other reason, just because Jesus loved 
them. Perhaps there will be a kind of 
spirit birds and flowers. Isn’t it a pretty 
thought of the Indians’ about the rain- 
bow? — 

“ ‘ ’Tis the heaven of flowers you see there; 

All the wild flowers of the forest, 

All the lilies of the prairie, 

When on earth they fade and perish, 

Blossom in that heaven above us.’ ” 


Isn’t that pretty?” said Nellie. 


78 


RUTH IE 'S STORY 


“Just the other day,” said Ruthie, “ I was 
reading such a dear little Swedish story. 
A young boy had died, and now in the 
starlight his spirit was going up through 
the air to heaven. He wasn’t alone. Oh 
no ! A lovely angel was with him. The 
boy and the angel were talking together. 
It was about a rose-bush that the angel 
was carrying, and that was all beautifully in 
bloom. The boy wondered how he came 
by it, and asked the angel to tell him about 
it. Then the angel told him that once there 
was a poor sickly boy living in the city be- 
low them. He had very few friends and 
no playthings or pets, excepting this one 
dear rose-bush. He grew very sick, and 
by and by he died and went away to heav- 
en, for he was a good boy. He was happy 
then in heaven, but he did want to have his 
rose-bush, just as you think, Charlie, you 
would want your tops. At last he asked 
Jesus about it, and of course Jesus was 
willing he should have it, if he cared so 


RUTHIE AND JESUS NO IV. 1 79 

much for it. The angel told the child that 
this rose-bush which he was carrying now 
was the one the boy had loved so much 
and had wanted to have with him to grow 
and bloom in heaven. At that the child 
wondered again, and asked the angel how 
he knew so well about it all : 

“ * How knowest thou this, 

Thou seraph mild ?’ 

The angel answered swiftly back, 

‘ I was that sickly child.’ ” 

“Isn’t that pretty?” exclaimed Nellie. 

“ It’s only a play-story,” said Ruthie, “ but 
I do think that if you, Charlie or Nellie, or 
I, or any little angel child in heaven ever 
really wants a rose or anything, Jesus will 
give him either the very thing or some- 
thing that he certainly will like just as 
well or better. 

“You know about the great Martin Lu- 
ther, Charlie — how wise and good he was? 
Mother was reading to me one day when 
I was sick a letter he wrote his little girl 


i8o 


RUTH IE ' S STORY. 


when she was sick too and they thought 
she would surely die. I want to read it to 
you now.” 

Ruthie found the book and the page, 
and read: 

“ Father to iiis little Gretchen : . . . 
If you were to go to heaven, you would 
find there a very beautiful garden, and in 
it there would be boys and girls at play, 
and the children would be very glad to 
welcome you among them. They would 
show you their games, the swings and toys, 
the dolls, the carriages. Everything which 
a good child could wish they would have ; 
and all their joys they would share with 
you, and together you would play, learning 
to love each other very dearly, since all 
would be kind and generous.” 

“Now, Charlie, do you feel just as you 
did before?” asked Ruthie. “I don’t be- 
lieve you do. Don’t you feel as though 
heaven must be nice every way?” 


RUTH IE AND JESUS NOW, l8l 

“Yes, Ruthie, I do,” replied Charlie. “I 
didn’t really think it wasn’t nice before, but 
I couldn’t exactly feel so, you know ; I do 
now. I want to go there ; but you don’t 
think, do you, Ruthie, that everybody will^ 
go there after death?” 

“ Oh dear, I suppose not,” answered 
Ruthie, sadly. “ They say there are a 
good many real bad people in the world 
who wouldn’t be good even in heaven, and 
could not be happy there where everything 
is kind and pure and holy, or anywhere, be- 
cause they are so bad. I suppose there are 
such people, but I don’t think I know any 
of them.” 

“But, Ruthie, it doesn’t seem as though 
there could be anybody so bad — people 
who just hate what is good and holy and 
Christ-like,” said Nellie. 

“ It doesn’t seem so, Nellie, but I expect 
there are. Any way, if we really want to 
go to heaven because Jesus is the King 
there, and because it is such a glad, good, 


182 


RUTH IE ’S STORY. 


happy place, we can certainly go — anybody 
can. Just think, Nellie! will it not be nice, 
some time, all of us together in such a 
bright, beautiful home as that? I know 

o 7 

ever so many hymns about heaven and 
about Jesus now, and the angels. This 
one we all know and can sincr: 

o 

“ ‘ There is a happy land 
Far, far away, 

Where saints in glory stand, 

Bright, bright as day. 

Oh how they sweetly sing, 

“Worthy is our Saviour King, 

Loud let his praises ring — 

Praise, praise for aye” !’ 

“ But here are the verses I like best of 
all,” continued Ruthie. “ Why do you sup- 
pose I like them so much ? It is because 
Cousin Will wrote them for mother when 
they all thought in a little while I would be 
with Jesus. Mother gave them to me only 
the other day. Let me say them to you : 

“ ‘ Ruthie can never die ! 

She can lay her garments by, 


RUTH IE AND JESUS NOW. 


183 


Her body fair, and so 
As a spirit free can go 
To abide with Christ on high. 

“ ‘ Mansions are ready above, 

Prepared in infinite love. 

When out from the earthly nest 
Flies far the snow-white dove, 

There, there it will safely rest. 

“ ‘Bright is the heavenward way: 

Would you have the spirit stay ? 

Oh, suffer the bird to go, 

Snow-white, from the home below 
To the glory of heavenly day.’ 

“ I think those verses are very sweet, but 
doesn’t it seem strange, Nellie and Charlie, 
to think how near I seemed to be going 
away like that to heaven ?” 

“Weren’t you sorry, Ruthie?” asked 
Nellie. 

“ I was sorry about leaving you all, and 
sometimes I was a little bit afraid about 
the going alone. But when I felt that 
way, I tried to think about how heaven 
would look, and whom I should see there, 


184 


RUTH IE ’S STORY. 


and what I should do ; and then very soon 
I would be real happy again. It never 
seemed one bit as though I was going very 
far away. Now I am just as happy to think 
I can stay here again with the roses and 
the birds and you all and everybody. 

“ The dear roses ! what piles of them 
you brought me, and how happy they 
seem ! There is the prettiest one I can 
find for you, Nellie, and the next prettiest 
for Charlie.” 

“ Ruthie, doesn’t it seem a long, long 
time since we had our first talk together 
about Jesus — about the baby Jesus ?” asked 
Nellie. “Do you remember what times 
we had then playing with our dolls ? We 
aren’t much older now, but in some way 
we don’t care to play with them as we 
used to.” 

“I know, Nellie; I expect it’s partly be- 
cause we have been so interested in the 
Christ-story. We have felt more like talk- 
ing about that than playing with the dolls. 


RUTH IE AND JESUS NO IV. ]35 

And now, Nellie and Charlie, the story is 
ended ; yet it doesn’t seem as though it 
was ended. I wish it were not.” 

“So do I wish it wasn’t, Ruthie dear?” 
answered Charlie. “ I’ve let you and Nellie 
do most of the talking, but I wouldn’t have 
missed the listening. I wish there was more.” 

“ Suppose, after all, we don’t call it 
ended, Charlie and Nellie? It isn’t really 
ended, you know, and it never will be, be- 
cause Jesus will never be dead, and we shall 
never be dead, except in our bodies. It 
will be a kind of continued story, you know, 
and it will go on and on for ever.” 

“Then,” said Charlie, “if what we have 
talked was made into a book, Ruthie, we 
wouldn’t have any ‘The End’ printed, 
would we ?” 

“ No, Charlie, we wouldn’t. That would 
be like saying ‘ Good-bye ’ when nobody 
was going away. If we had anything 
printed, we would have it ‘To be Con- 
tinued.’ We will try and have it that way ; 


RUTH IE ' S STORY. 


1 86 

every day we will try and have it seem just 
as though Jesus was right with us — as 
though he were with us all the time.” 

“That will be nice, Ruthie,” said Nellie. 
“ I wonder what there will be to say about 
him next time we talk ?” 

“ And in all the ‘ next times ’ for ever, 
Nellie,” answered Ruthie. 

“ Ruthie dear, the roses are drooping a 
little, and so are you. That means that 
you are getting tired, and that means that 
Charlie and I ought to go. Oh, Ruth, I am 
so glad you are growing strong again ! 
You’ll be riding about and over to see me 
before long.” 

“ I think so, Nellie dear, but I don’t know. 
Yes, the roses are drooping, Nellie. I won- 
der if they will brighten again ? Kiss me 
good-bye, both of you, if you must go. And 
don’t ever forget that first verse that I told 
you. The words keep running in my mind. 
I like them: they make Christ and heaven 
seem so very near: 


RUTH IE AND JESUS NO IV. 


18/ 


“ ‘ Ruthie can never die! 

She can lay her garments by, 

Her body fair, and so 
As a spirit free can go 
To abide with Christ on high.’ 

There! good-bye, dear Nellie and Charlie 
— good-bye again.” 


















































































































































































































































































































































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